“Good luck to you all,” announced Jack Cooper, Mazes’ innately unassuming singer, attempting an exquisitely unsmooth interaction with the line of fans in front of him. “Does that sound sarcastic?”

Formed in 2003 and noted for their quietly clever take on transatlantic indie, this gangly trio are prone to ending mid-set asides with mumbled apologies.

But their depths of understatement leave more time for their fantastic musicianship: Neil Robinson’s staccato drumming added a post-punk pace to Cooper and bassist Conan Roberts’ plumes of tricky guitar work, often accelerating off into lengthy, surf-rocky outros without ever threatening to outstay their welcome.

Latest record Wooden Aquarium – “a few of these are off our new album – is it important to mention that?”, interjects Cooper, preparing to sell post-show copies from a table – has seen the band record in a studio rather than their previous settings of boats, pubs and bedrooms, and there’s a quickfire urgency to its songs which, by their standards, is almost curt.

Cooper and Roberts still clearly love a finger-picking jam whenever the chance arises though, stylishly drawing out each track before reining themselves back in.

Their closer, the creeping, muscular Skulking, felt like it had arrived too soon.