I wouldn’t have gone along if, having investigated a few tracks on Spotify, I hadn’t been interested in what I heard, but rarely have such moderately low-ish expectations been more massively exceeded. The first clue that something special was afoot was the full house in place ready for the support act, a solo acoustic performance from Nate Bergman (no, me neither), a gent’ with a powerful voice, who was greeted enthusiastically by the excitable crowd, which was an unusual mixture of older folk (hands up) and a large much younger crew. The latter displaying a generally alternative dress sense with a lot of retro Punk accessories on display, not to mention a number of cowboy hats. The crowd and the performers seemed a little like they had each come to the wrong show by accident.

The fact that the musician Danny Kiranos, trading under the name of Amigo The Devil, writes songs with lyrics that don’t pull any punches and which would have had warnings back in the day (do they still use parental advisory stickers?) must appeal to a certain type of audience member that likes a bit of attitude in their music. Alternatively, it could just be that, as well as having a charismatic stage personality, he writes fantastically wry songs with witty, observational lyrics and wraps them in melodic musical wrappers that are powerful enough to be played by one man and a banjo (or acoustic guitar).

On record, his songs have interesting arrangements and on the night he had a full band backing him, however, the songs were the focal point and the backing never overshadowed the delivery of the lyrics, which the whole crowd appeared to know intimately. The songs were instantly memorable, ‘Murder At The Bingo Hall’ capturing the imagination with its opening line “It was a quiet night at the gaming hall, we doubled up on cocaine and Adderall”. The audience was as enthusiastic as it was knowledgeable; the chorus to the jaunty roll of ‘Hungover In Jonestown’ was sung along to with gusto, especially the line “la, la, la, oh, this life is a joke and death is the punchline”.

As well as playing songs from his latest release ‘Yours Until The War Is Over’, like ‘Cannibal Within’ and ‘Stray Dog’, the set was full of the aforementioned favourites from the back catalogue, including the song ‘Husband’ from his 2018 album ‘Volume 1’, which was introduced with a long tragi-comic story about its subject matter, which was written about an old flame and her new husband, with its (huge sing-a-long) chorus of “I,I,I,I,I etc hope your husband dies”. The singer further deadpan explained that he became good friends with the man in question only for him to actually die. The song explains male sexual jealousy much more directly that many a lesser songwriter could manage; its opening lines are spot on: “trust me, I’m not jealous, I’m just hoping that he really messes up”.

What was hugely satisfying was that each song was delivered without unnecessary elongation in the form of ego boosting solos, which is a lesson many other musicians would be wise to follow. The only song that was extended was the closing song ‘Perfect Wife’ when Amigo/Danny plunged into the audience with his banjo and the chorus did a number of extra rounds amidst audience mayhem and general excitement. It was a brilliant performance, and an unexpectedly memorable evening.

Simon Green