A REAL treat and quite a coup to land big fish Noah & the Whale for a graduation ball, and although their performance at the 02 was all too short and sweet, it certainly whetted my appetite for more.

With a 45-minute set that dipped into tracks from their current album, The First Days of Spring, a beautiful collection of break-up songs filled with regret, pain and optimism, Noah on the surface of things didn’t seem like the ideal party choice.

However, with a sound that fell somewhere between Snow Patrol and Dexys Midnight Runners the indie-folksters got the mood exactly right, picking their songs wisely.

The uplifting Blue Skies felt like bathing in liquid sunshine, while the bombastic rock ’n’ roll and cluttering guitars of Tonight’s the Kinda Night brought a Big Country-esque atmosphere to proceedings.

The party mood was helped along as the crowd sang along to Kiss’s God Gave Rock ’n’ Roll to You and a tribute to frontman Charlie Fink’s faves Blink 182 with What’s My Age Again.

The inevitable icing on the cake was their summer feel-good hit 5 Years Time – one of the happiest songs of recent times that I never tire of.

Local warm-up band, the post-rock, ambient Kinnie the Explorer went down a storm with tracks from their debut EP Blood, It’s On Every Wall and new dream-pop songs promise greater things to come.