On Friday Owen and I schlepped out to the ever-delightful Bush Hall - which we only ever visit in heatwaves - to see Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls in a tryout for her solo appearances at Edinburgh.

The Bush Hall is such a nice venue to see acts it's a shame I come here so infrequently. The only problem is as it was originally a dance hall there is no rake to the floor so if you have a crowd full of top punters you are kinda fecked. It wasn't that packed so luckily there was room to roam.

We had 2 support acts both introduced by Amanda, the first Christian Silva were actually quite fun - quirky little songs that didn't outstay their welcome. The second, Rohan Theatre Band luckily kept it to two songs, there's one guy who needs to back up on the Jacques Brel listening.

Luckily he soon introduced us to Amanda.. but where was she? Then we heard a ukulele being strummed from the back of the room and there was Amanda perched on the balcony overlooking the room in a red tutu. She started singing Radiohead's CREEP there then wended her way through the singing audience. It was an idiosyncratic way to start but then she is nothing but an unpredictable performer.

She played songs that were all new to me and most of them sounded very good. Maybe it's my mind but it seemed she sang the quirky songs early in the set leaving most of her introspective songs for the rest of the evening so after a while they began to become interchangeable. Her solo album will be released next year and I'm sure when heard in that context the songs will be a bit more memorable.

My heart sank when Rohan Theatre Band popped up with his violin but when they started on a deeply introspective MATERIAL GIRL it wasn't so bad and they then did a fine version of the Dresden's COLORBLIND. She finished off with a thunderous version of HALF JACK which stayed rattling around my head for the rest of the night.

By then we had moved back away from the crush at the front as Owen was getting a bit uncomfortable - and it's lucky we did as suddenly a woman holding a video camera and a big light was walking backwards through the crowd followed by Amanda who was heading for the grand piano at the back of the hall!

She suggested everyone sit down which was easier said than done for poor O with his dodgy back so by the time we managed to sit down we had to contort ourselves in between the hands feet and legs of the others - I was in agony! But it was worth it to be so close - about 3 people back from her at the piano and she did haunting versions of the Dresden's ME AND THE MINI-BAR and new song I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK.

She seemed to be filling up as she thanked us for sharing the evening with her and to huge cheers she attempted to make her way though the crowd scrambling to its feet to applaud her - Owen and I both got a hand squeeze as she past though I suspect Owen was more trying to use her to pull himself up off the damp carpet!

We hung around in the tiny foyer with a crowd of fans and she appeared on the stairs in a sparkly little cocktail number and before we knew it we were chatting and taking photos with her. She was so friendly and happy to chat, she even gave O her private e-mail so he could send her some of his pictures from the Dresden's Roundhouse gigs.