Gig review: RM Hubbert & Beerjacket

Throughout his solo acoustic set the only words RM Hubbert offered were between his songs, matter-of-fact introductions which revealed the darkest of inspirations.

One track was about the recent death of a friend. Elsewhere he explained the sudden death of his parents.

Even more poignantly, if that's possible, he revealed "I've suffered badly from depression since I was a teenager. When it comes back I find it hard to communicate how I feel."

It's this music, he told us, which expresses his emotions far more powerfully that words ever could: "I don't have to go to a therapist, now I get paid to talk like this."

Before Hubbert's set on this top-quality triple bill of local solo artists came Michael Cassidy and Beerjacket, the latter the alias of Lanarkshire's Peter Kelly. Not only were Kelly's songs very nearly as downbeat as Hubbert's, things also got a little tense when he just couldn't seem to get one song right. That said, at its heights his music rang with the heartfelt if frustrated optimism of Bright Eyes or Elliot Smith.

The singular talent of Hubbert was the evening's high-water mark, though. Bearded and tattooed, the sometime El Hombre Trajeado guitarist looked like he might have been better suited to a particularly noisy rock band, yet he cradled his guitar tenderly as he played a set which was utterly affecting.

Merging elements of classical and Latin styles, hitting the instrument's body as if it were a drum and giving clear hints that his virtuoso playing is as much influenced by Metallica and Mogwai, he put on a show which didn't need words to be perfectly expressive and emotional.