Psapp: Live at Cargo, 11/03/'09

The audience rise as one as Psapp arrive on stage at Cargo, a venue which has long been a bastion for cutting edge music across all genres. And, despite the fact it’s largely because they have been mellow-ly, attentively waiting sat cross-legged on the concrete floor, you get the feeling Psapp have a standing ovation awaiting them from the start. Rarely does an act evoke such pure good feeling, without tipping over into anything sickly sweet, so instantly.

Lead singer Galia Durant displays an empathetic, shambolic charm throughout delving into a Poundland bag to supply the audience with sweets, toys and, bizarrely, vacuum packed pickles. Durrant’s bag of brilliance also features several medals (which may have been dog collars in a previous incarnation) which she readily dishes out. Unfortunately she gives the first out to one adoring fan, who sounds of Swedish origin, encouraging him to praise his parents in accepting the award only for the man to inform her that his father had died this year, a statement which leaves band and audience in slight shock until he sweetly states that his father would be enjoying the gig from heaven. A touching moment in an evening of similar emotions.
Material tonight comes largely from last year’s The Camel’s Back and 2006’s The Only Thing I Ever Wanted with delights such as Tricycle and The Monster Song enriching the quirky verve of the set. Typical eletronica style soundscapes are added to by much more natural sounds with Psapp – the two violin approach adds an immediacy to the tracks not found on record while made up instruments such as the boneafone, made up of bones procured from butchers by bluffing about non-existent dogs, add a 'unique' element to the night.

Last time Psapp did a gig in London Durant’s father got up and did a lecture on Darwinism and she baits her mother, in attendance, to talk on Middle East politics but in the end we get more soundscapes, more cats as instruments, kazoos and a farewell tinged with disappointment for fans who will have to wait till a sprog is popped before seeing the band in the capital again. Enjoy their increasingly illustrious back catalogue in the meantime.