In recent years the Cabaret Voltaire has played host to some of the best up-and-coming bands in the country. Maximo Park, The Horrors, Forward Russia, Ladyfuzz ‘` all have graced its tiny, stone-vaulted stage. All of which makes tonight’s gig by Larrikin Love unmissable. Quirky, off-centre, but fired by the manic energy of frontman Edward Larrikin, they feel like a band that are just about to break through into the limelight.
Before they take to the stage we’re treated to a suitably lively warm-up from Liverpool five-piece Alterkicks. Once we get over the fact that they look like they’ve taken a few weeks off from their GCSEs, they provide the gathered masses with a few moments of pop brilliance to get those dancing shoes working. New single ‘`On Our Holiday’ feels a little subdued after the earlier rabble-rousing, but as lead singer Martin Stilwell screams ‘`oh mother, what have they done to us?’ I can’t resist a wry smile. Secretly, their mothers must be so proud.
And then it’s time for the main event. Larrikin Love’s recent recordings place them firmly in the same folksy category as fellow musical tinkers the Mystery Jets, but it soon becomes apparent that they crank things up to eleven for their live set, as Edward Larrikin hurls himself into the fray. Part Pete Doherty-wannabe, part medieval minstrel, part rock’n’roll monster, he’s possessed by a rare talent that’s almost as hard to pin down as his unruly fringe. ‘`Happy As Annie’ sounds worryingly like a barn dance in its live incarnation, while somehow still retaining an aura of post-Libertines credibility, yet it’s ‘`Downing St. Kindling’ that receives the biggest cheer of the night, as the crowd sings along with the sentiment that ‘`I cannot live in England’.
Then, just as it’s all going so well, things descend into chaos. Larrikin appears to pick a fight with the rest of the band, the argument boiling over until he almost pushes the bassist off the side of the stage. His acoustic guitar then develops a malfunction of its own, and the final song is played out amidst shrugs and resigned laughter. Is it all staged? Possibly. Do we care? Not a jot. Tonight Larrikin Love have played like a band possessed, their unconventional folk-punk shaking the very foundations of Edinburgh’s Old Town. Limelight here they come.