Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Ahead of ex-Portishead man Barrow leaving the trio, there’s time for one last tour – and it’s a triumph of musical freedom and fraternity

As they lock in to Yatton’s remorseless groove, you get the sense that the audience could leave and Beak> wouldn’t break stride. Night one of the experimental rock band’s final tour with Geoff Barrow – their drummer and, thanks to the lingering power of his work with Portishead, their foot in the door when they began in 2007 – is a celebration of noise, focus and, most importantly, the things that can be achieved when musicians really get each other.

With Barrow stage left, bassist-vocalist Billy Fuller seated in the middle and multi-instrumentalist Will Young standing off to one side before a table of gadgets that look like they might once have sent a cosmonaut into orbit, the trio play spiky, difficult songs with the low-stakes freedom of three mates with a block booking at a rehearsal space.