Grinderman @ Barrowlands, 28 Sep

Grinderman have described their causa causans as an “excuse to make a fucking racket”; turns out that this is something they’re particularly good at. Playfully customising the source material that is their two LPs to date there is a sense of the vaudevillian pantomime to the embellishments of tracks such as The Worm Tamer, Kitchenette, No Pussy Blues, and Get it On, with the musical and lyrical ad-libbing serving to emphasise the underlying sense of humour inherent in the Grinderman project.

Fittingly, Nick Cave dedicates tonight's rendition of the oddity that is Heathen Child to Glasgow's Alex Harvey: a man who flitted effortlessly though a vast array of musical styles and experimentations and of whom Cave says “changed our lives, not necessarily for the better.” The Grinderman sound owes everything to the pervasive relentlessness of the rhythms provided by bassist Martyn Casey and towering drummer Jim Sclavunos, allied with the impressive multi-instrumental improvisation of Warren Ellis.

However, it is Cave, the spindly, gyrating wraith who dominates attention with a performance of high-octane lascivious intent -- culminating in a captivating pastiche of the Lizard King's famous 'mojo rising' refrain on their eponymous closer. [Paul Mitchell]