Gig review: Okkervil River

Published on Thursday 10 September 2009 18:56

OKKERVIL RIVER **** ORAN MOR, GLASGOW

TEXAN folkie indie-rock band Okkervil River's breakthrough was a long time coming – nine years and four albums, until 2007's critically-feted The Stage Names at last brought them to a wider audience. While they're a bit too rickety to be assaulting the mainstream anytime soon, they could probably comfortably sustain themselves forever on the tide of goodwill that stems from hard-core fans of the sort that packed this show – a captivating and celebratory affair.

Singer and songwriter Will Sheff is the scatty, charmingly dishevelled-looking and occasionally bespectacled (when he can find them) young bloke at the heart of their appeal. A wordy, confessional songsmith, his preambles spilled into long, unintelligible mumbles between songs; his obligatory solo-turn at the start of the encore – which saw him warble gorgeously, heart-on-sleeve, while scraping away at a twangy acoustic guitar – brought a pin-drop silence down on the room.

Yet Sheff's biggest success is probably in assembling such a great band around him – five versatile musicians on combination of bass, keys, guitars, drums, horns, banjo and mandolin. It's Okkervil River's busiest, blustered moments – all soaring choruses and Motown-y basslines – that are their best.

If Unless It Kicks was joyous Lost Coastlines was positively ecstatic. Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe took on the character of a Springsteen mini-epic, stretched out beyond the five-minute mark with audience clap-alongs, climactic whoops and a fizzing breakdown.