The original bill for the Boulder Coffee show Thursday night took a few turns throughout the week. Initially, I walked in the venue expecting the indie/folk-rock six-piece Baby Shiver's Boutique alongside the much-hyped Golden Ghost.

The set began an hour late, and as it turns out Baby Shiver's was widdled down to band member Ian Egling after he split with the band prior to this performance. Egling began the evening with a testament to his missing musicians, throwing in a quick "I wish they were here" as he began to play.

But Egling did the one-man-band thing with ease and delivered some memorable melodies on the keys and vocals. Equipped with vocal playback and sampled drums, the soft-spoken musician played three to four songs in his set, all hushed and quirky with some seriously catchy key riffs. His set, although brief, was charming.

Next up was a surprise guest not on the bill -- Viking Moses, also known as Brendon Massei, who played a short set and later coupled his talents with Golden Ghost. Massei's set was carried by a conventional and rooted vocal. The set seemed unrehearsed, the vocal became chaotic at times, but it always reached its mark.

And then, there was Golden Ghost. I had been hearing about this chick all week, and since Massei ended his set calling Ghost's new album "The best thing I've ever heard," I was edge-of-my-seat type of waiting before her set. Golden Ghost's tunes all felt like conversations, the kind of conversations you drive home picking apart and distilling down for some kind of meaning. The sound had a soul within a soul to it -- layers of heart with a mirror.  Everything on stage during her set offered a peaceful, uncontrived experience. A few in the audience pegged her sound as Rilo Kiley with a bit of Joanna Newsom. From her vocal and lyrical presence all the way down to her casual exterior, Golden Ghost seemed authentic.

Massei joined her for the set, his guitar swung around him as he sat behind the drums, backing up the singer with layered harmony and percussion. The chemistry between these two beamed across the stage -- there was a clear and natural symmetry there. After the set, Laura Goetz (Ghost) took a minute to describe the evolution of her sound, from the first album up until the new release that is due to come in a few weeks, saying that the sound is "richer and more clear. It definitely gets my ideas across better."

Goetz has spent some time overseas, and is now taking off on a nationwide tour in the States for awhile.