DRY ice swirls on stage as spoken word poet Kate Tempest walks out to take the mic at Brighton Dome.

A huge disk, reminiscent of Jerram’s Museum Of The Moon, is stagelit behind her in red as she launches into Europe Is Lost from her 2016 Mercury Prize nominated album Let Them Eat Chaos.

When she raps, her head tilts back, mic up against the stage moon. She is howling to the night sky, her shadow casts an eerie silhouette.

For the opening set she plays tracks from her first two albums, Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos, a concept album which is both a lament for humanity and a call to action.

Kate rallies the crowd: “So I was here in Brighton a few years ago curating the festival. It’s really special to me. This feels like a beautiful way to come back and say thank you. The first time we performed this new album, The Book Of Traps And Lessons, was in Whitehawk and Hamilton Community Centres. And what a beautiful way of closing that circle.”

Her new material takes up the second part of the set. The sound is more intimate than her previous hip-hop influenced albums, with minimal electronics and simple synth chords.

She is joined on stage by Clare Uchima, a fantastic synth player who adds mood and nuance.

Firesmoke is a stand out single about the madness of romantic love. When she sings “The fire rises between us, makes us get on the wrong trains, walk the wrong way, makes strangers smile greetings on Lewisham Way” a roar goes up from the crowd. She beams: “I feel your love.”

It takes a special kind of magnetism for an artist to play to an audience the size of the Dome and make every person feel they are being spoken to, but that is exactly what Kate Tempest does.

There is a maturity that comes across in the new album, after the apocalyptic vision and self-destruction of Let Them Eat Chaos, Kate allows herself moments of love.

Self-love is a strong message and the psalm-like beauty of Hold Your Own with a church organ playing on synth in the background, delights the devoted crowd.

Kate leaves the stage to massive applause and returns with a simple message: “Thank you. I don’t really believe in the convention of leaving the stage and then coming back out.

"I just didn’t want the last thing that you felt to be disappointed.”

She’s right, disappointed is the last thing the audience felt.