Music: Lach

Published on Thursday 11 September 2008 20:30

LACH KING TUT'S, GLASGOW

DEFINING moment No 1 from this strange but sublime show: our host, a balding, geeky-looking guy of around 40 in a 1970s vintage Marvel Comics T-shirt, stopping a song entitled Kiss Loves You and instructing his crowd to shout out, on the count of three, the name of the band "that got you outta the house". The band, in other words, that made you care enough about music to go and see it performed.

So a roar goes up, and everyone from Iron Maiden to a possibly slightly ironic REO Speedwagon find themselves mentioned. There are maybe a couple of dozen people in, but it could be the Barrowlands.

Defining moment No 2: when Lach (pronounced "latch", a pseudonym he's happy to use in place of a real name) pulls the lone guitar which is accompanying his voice to one side and demonstrates to us "the one thing you'll never see Mick Jagger do at a Rolling Stones concert". The leader of New York's influential Antifolk movement produces a notepad and says, "Uh, I got my e-mail list here if you want to sign it".

This is a hilariously lo-fi show even without the music, but when Lach starts singing songs called things like Smoking Again and Drinking Beers With Mom, and prefaces another track entitled Former President Bush with the line "three little words to cheer you up when you're feeling sad" in what he calls his best Peter and the Wolf baritone, those watching splutter in their pints and applaud wildly. A bit political, a bit personal and just a bit silly, this was definitely a show worth getting outta the house for.