Murder By Death - Camden Dublin Castle

Nighttime in Camden, the walls oozing sweat (in the scarlet spotlight it looks like blood), too many people squished into a too tiny room, a band similarly squished onto too small a stage, combusting. In the foreground, oilslick quiff lashing across his brow, his eyes possessed with a puppy-killing calm at odds with the torrential Old Testament dramas slipping from his lips, Adam Turla strums minor chords with flamenco vigour, his words piecing together tales of betrayal, sin, recrimination. The good stuff. "It´s the rush you get when you know you´ve done wrong," he croons blackly, and dammit, that´s my review right there.

Stage left, Sarah Balliet´s bleak cello sweeps and churns, sulphurous. It´s the last song already, a bitter ramble called `Brother´, shadowed by anger and studded with the kind of wisdoms you only find in the bottom of a whiskey bottle, the kind of lessons that sting when they´re taught. So why do they go down so easy when sung in soulful register, backed by such sweltering, savagely poetic rock´n´roll?