The xx continue to beguile with intimate Tivoli Theatre performance

The xx were supposed to have outgrown their early shyness but for a moment during the first of the band’s two super-intimate Tivoli, Dublin shows Oliver Sim was lost for words. "I wasn't sure what to say tonight…but go out and vote."

The remarks came halfway through a performance that bent and wove through the London three-piece's darkly glittering catalogue. Forty-eight hours out from the abortion referendum Sim’s plea naturally elicited an approving chorus (it seemed that every second person in attendance sported “Repeal” apparel), but it was just one of many standouts in a concert that confirmed the xx as masters of gothic ennui and gorgeously-spun melancholia.

Received wisdom tells us that, with their 2017 third album In Colour, Sim, guitarist and co-vocalist Romy Madley Croft and techno-boffin Jamie Smith had stepped beyond their old wallflower personas. The truth is more complex in that the xx were never that miserable to begin with while their latter-day incarnation is shot through with ambivalence, upbeat grooves underpinned with an apparent reluctance to give themselves utterly to the moment.

The set mirrored their headline performance at last year’s Electric Picnic, though without the spectacular light show. Instead of flashing strobes and video screens, up close the band dazzled with their nervous grins and earnest showmanship (they swayed and snarled but were careful to stop short of rock star posturing).

The night was above all a celebration as they clattered through Dangerous and Islands, minimalist bangers that articulated the xx’s less-is-more approach. It wasn’t all po-faced, with Madley-Croft cracking up as she flubbed part of a A Violent Noise and the trio clicking into warehouse party mode for a throbbing Loud Places (from Smith’s solo record).

Most breathtaking of all was Madley Croft’s vocal on Angels, the apocalyptic confessional with which they brought down the shutters. It was a heart-melting conclusion to an evening that swerved between bliss and desolation and underscored just how unique a proposition the xx continue to be.