Lach’s Antihoot Radio Night

So, you’ve ‘discovered’ Beck, Regina Spektor, The Moldy Peaches, Jeffrey Lewis, Michelle Shocked… what do you do next? In the case of anti-folk pioneer Lach, move across the Atlantic, to a city with a live music scene that is at best ‘fluctuating’, and start up a similar(ish) night, surrounding yourself with, this time, already ‘known’ local musos.

This regular weekly event started last year at Edinburgh Festival time, but the reborn version has introduced an element of theatre – so rather than a straight singer-songwriter night, the first half is in the form of a comedy show (and will eventually form a podcast). So, we have sketch-based comedy a la 1960s radio, complete with sound effects (knocking at doors, keys rattling etc).
The artists appear as themselves on the stage – apart from the disembodied voice of engineer Brendan O’Hare, reprising his role from the cave at the back of the 13th Note, and whose job it is on this occasion is to coax out a soundcheck from each act. It’s just like being behind the scenes before a regular gig.

On stage, in turn, troop Fence-affiliated act Candythief, Roy Moller (occasional songwriter for Belle and Sebastian as well as a familiar singer and guitarist in his own right) as well as our host Lach. There are cameos for an ambitious barmaid, and Lach’s flatmate Gary (a Mark Williams lookalike with a permanent startled appearance and a neat line in joke-telling and invisible harmonica playing).
Each one folows a script, though the host himself veers off piste, musing on mindmelding spirits, Keith Richards vs Pete Townsend, and the disappointment of UK radio and magazines.

Each act plays a short set – Candythief has worked out a customised version of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, though her self-penned tunes including the new single (out on cassette, possibly, in June) are just as fine. Roy Moller – it’s pronounced Moller – shows a neat line in guitar work and showcases tunes from his forthcoming album, to be selected by his mysterious Toronto-based label.

The main event, sort of, comes in the form of a longer set from Lach, which spans surreal philosophy (‘Blue Monk’), smart satire (‘Everyone’s Therapist’) and daft plain daft (the Spiderman theme which takes a leap of faith in a new verse where Bob Dylan meets the Pope). With the witty between-song chat and the lyrics spat out in a Jello Biafra-eqsue sneer, he’s politics, music, and a guide for life and how to live it all rolled into one.

A smoke break and then it’s the all-star band – O’Hare on drums for the first time in how many years, Moller on guitar, and a non-veteran bearded bassist who looks very familiar. It’s largely for laughs – the band’s, that is and if the audience like it then it’s a bonus. So we get covers of The Jam, Eno and Lou Reed delivered in endearingly ramshackle form. It’s a night that has everything – music, humour and an oddly cohesive feel as each song, each turn, each gag and spontaneous aside leads to the next – almost like they scripted the whole show and not just the radio episode. It’s certainly worth investigating, but see it once and you might well be hooked. Anyway, what else would you be doing in Edinburgh on a Wednesday evening?

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