King Creosote, Edinburgh review: 'flawed but unique'

King Creosote | Calum Gordon

King Creosote, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★

It's sadly impossible to give any concert as beset by stop-start technical difficulties as this one an entirely glowing review, especially when it had to be trimmed to under an hour, barely half of its planned running time. But wow, if Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, isn't the perfect artist to craft some kind of silk purse out of a sow's ear, as he managed to do even in uphill circumstances like these.

Most of the music played came from Anderson's striking most recent album I DES, with four backing electronic musicians plus accordion, violin and a second acoustic guitar in accompaniment (and what a sublime band, including violinist Hannah Fisher, guitarist Emily Barker and Lomond Campbell on keyboards). The opening It's Sin That's Got It's Hold Upon Us was a tantalising epic, but by the following Blue Marbled Elm Trees a persistent, cracking sound distortion was apparent.

Gamely continuing with the set as planned while their techs attempted to source the glitch, Anderson and the band couldn't help but be distracted, so he went off-script in trying to mitigate. Bats in the Attic was played unamplified, with Anderson and two others marching through the aisles; Susie Mullen was stripped back to an acoustic arrangement; finally, the unplanned Not One Bit Ashamed was played sitting at the stage's edge. The crowd rose in ovation as the band departed early.

As well as his too-often underestimated compositional brilliance, Anderson is simply an outstanding pub musician. To some people that term is an insult, but he shows its real worth. To play in the intimacy of a pub, a powerful sense of connection, familiarity and fellow feeling is needed. To see him comfortably transplant that to a concert hall which seats over 2,000 was a rare treat, despite the circumstances.

Before he departed, Anderson announced – or rather sang, as an improvised conclusion to Walter De La Nightmare – the usual announcement about refunds and the gig's rescheduling (7th of December, he said, although artist and venue's statements online haven't confirmed that yet). The many people who will no doubt take him up on that accept a refund or attend the hoped-for rescheduled gig are very unlikely to regret having been here for this flawed but beautifully unique first attempt.