A horse and cart outside the Brighton Dome, carrying casks of the band’s official ale; a curtain falling away to reveal all 11 members belting out recent album opener Let Her Run; and frontman Jon Boden’s matching pink jacket and tie combination.

Bellowhead are a band who take the folk tradition and make it bigger, more rock and roll, and more theatrical.

With Boden’s steady transformation into Muse’s Matt Bellamy now apparently complete, his taste for the dramatic has spread throughout the band.

Wherever one looked there were, in amongst the potted trees which decorated the stage, musicians not just playing parts perfectly but also clearly enjoying themselves.

There was dancing, leaping around, an oboe solo performed atop an amp – the oboe, of course, decorated with a spring of foliage – and repeat visits to the on-stage cask of the band’s Revival ale, including one furtive attempt by melodeon player John Spiers to drink the ale through a kazoo.

It was all indicative of a band which takes playing very seriously, without taking themselves too seriously.

The result was musically thrilling – the upbeat numbers fired out with the punch that 11 players bring, and the instrumental songs given new life as the full intricacies of the compositions could be heard – and visually, both joyous and endearingly amusing.

The Lord Nelson, in Trafalgar Street, took a step backwards a few hundred years in time with the arrival of folk band Bellowhead after the show, and their revival of some of the traditional songs sung through the generations.

Several members of the band, including Boden, took to the back room of the pub no more than an hour after finishing their predictably riotous show at the Dome.

This was a much more low-key affair than Bellowhead's famously powerful live shows, though – the band, along with members of support act The Moulettes and some of Brighton's local musicians, played acoustic renditions of the traditional songs heard in folk clubs across the country.

While the music was thoughtful played, the band still brought a febrile atmosphere with them – the room was as full as it could have been, with fans of the band keen to witness the musicians in close quarters, as well as to sample the group's recently-launched ale, courtesy of the Harvey's Brewery.

The result was a sense that what was being witnessed could have been a scene from many generations ago – beer being quaffed, people dancing, and an array of fiddles, accordions, strings and singers recalling songs much older than any of the audience.