Nave New World

St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast is quite the venue. It has the gravitas, the stained glass light show, the classic dimensions, the imperial fragrance and the awesome acoustics. It's been expressly built to shake your soul, a tradition that's been researched and designed over a good few centuries. No wonder then, that they do it well.

But it rarely lends itself to the contemporary and the secular. That's not really the Cathedral's gig. However, they're making an exception for Culture Night and thus we ascend the steps above Donegal Street and glide into the place that has given this quarter its brand but which frankly, we don't experience much.

The first thing we hear is Ciaran Lavery and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. The spirit of Ian Curtis is with us and our hearts are instantly in bits. The singer keeps us there with a few of his own tunes that are also spare and lonesome. Such a voice. And all that demonstrable intent as he moves away from his former role with Captain Kennedy.

Next up is Soak, who wears a straw hat, ripped jeans and no shoes. She clambers onto the stool like Huck Finn, smiling and unworried. Then she plays these ferocious songs that spark and collide. The teenager introduces 'Trains' as her first ever composition. I've raved about it in this blog before but this evening it sounds even more beautiful and portentious. I've been a little concerned about the dark themes in her art but some of the new songs are spry and witty. So we rejoice a bit more.

Katharine Philippa is another artist who takes us out of the mundane and into the blue. She wowed the Ulster Hall in May and by the time she appears in the Cathedral, the nave is busy and the people expectant. The keepers of the Church have no reason to worry either as this individual sings from a sainted place anyhow. Even when she does her famous mash-up of 'Video Games' and 'Earthquake' you feel that significant themes have been raised. The journey steers us to the conclusion that is 'Home', with the wave sounds, the reverberating chords, the last exaltation.

Outside, Culture Night is getting feverish with the samba rhythms, the Wicker Man ritual, the cacophony and the release. But inside here, the experience is cool, meditative and deep. Nothing at all like it.