Eels + Jesca Hoop

The gracious Georgian facade and piazza of Somerset House welcomes the hoi polloi once a year for a series of excellent, relatively intimate shows. The Summer Series hits its ninth birthday this year and kicks off procedings with the existential angst and melancholy of Eels, who combine that with an ineffably catchy and intriguingly odd mix of alterno pop, Waitsian blues, funky, Beck-like fare and exploratory soundscaping. Plus Guy Garvey-endorsed Californian pop-folk singer Hoop with her delicate yet beguilingly warm-blooded songs, which recall Joni Mitchell and Bjork without paying craven homage to either.