There’s a burst of applause before the band launches into a set of reels: the pace is immediately fast and furious, and you can hear the audience in the background, whooping and hurrahing above an excited buzz of conversation. I can’t see the line-up, but I’d guess two fiddles, two flutes, accordion, drums and piano. Nor can I be sure if there are dancers – it’s sometimes difficult to tell drums from feet – but it sounds like a squad of them out there, or in there, the dance-floor thronged and heaving and bouncing as the band carries them along with the music. The band ends the first tune with a coordinated bang and a split-second stop-cut of pregnant silence that jump-starts them into the next. A great cheer goes up: impelled by the general...