Snow Patrol cracked the US after their single Chasing Cars featured on medical drama Grey's Anatomy. But Tom McRae's evening of TV troubadours was far too heavy on the soft-focus tunes. He was born in Essex, but after failing to capitalise on Brit and Mercury nominations he based himself in LA and performed regularly at the city's Hotel Café.

Now he's brought American songwriters from that venue on tour. So after a couple of engrossing, subdued tunes - and just as things were getting interesting on the cello-backed For The Restless - McRae exited, and his fans had to watch earnest performances from, among others, Cary Brothers and Joe Purdy. Neither are big names, though their songs have appeared on global TV shows.

"Joe Purdy is all over Lost and Grey's Anatomy," McRae told the crowd. "And I've been on Hollyoaks!"

But where McRae was convincingly downbeat, his cohorts' acoustic efforts were often protracted and lyrically tiresome. This was music almost designed for those emotionally flat scenes in Lost, where characters stare meaningfully at each other on the beach for quite some time.

The backslapping on stage could have been forgiven. But while McRae did return, after two and half hours he'd played only six songs. Rather than leaving the audience wanting more, that was more like sending them home malnourished.