Gruff Rhys – Koko, London 11/02/15

During the two hour set, with a mercurial band including Kliph Scurlock, ex of Flaming Lips, there’s more talking than singing. He also proves to be a formidable raconteur, delivering his lines with such droll deadpan you wonder if his next move will be stand-up comedy. ‘John Evans was a bit like David Bowie in the 70s, he was undergoing lots of transformations, he had a full head of hair.’

The set is accompanied by a series of hilariously surreal images which depict Evans’ story through photographs of a felt puppet creation of him in various parts of the US. The stage is surrounded by cacti with the felt puppet - who is credited as a member of the touring band - at the back. Opening with the title track “American Interior”, the main set isn’t exclusively from the album, “Shark Ridden Waters” from Hotel Shampoo arrives early on and fits the narrative arc perfectly, augmented by trumpet, Rhys plays a 7-inch record on a Dansette at its coda.

The story is unveiled with each song. “Walk Into The Wilderness” is introduced with ‘John Evans lands in America, he’s 22 years old, he goes for a coffee. This is a power-ballad, imagine it with the wind blowing through his hair.’ It ends sounding like a Welsh choir singing on The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. We then hear of other tales, Evans arrest during his quest, which features a jazz interlude and police lights with “Emergency, call 911” on the screen, and of his hunt for unicorns.

The story of course has to end somewhere and Rhys introduces “The Swamp” with the line ‘And at the age of 29, John Evans dies’ to huge cries of dismay from the audience. During the song he seems to become a living version Evans “I’m just a tourist, waving goodbye.” Seemingly lost in the melancholy of the story he absentmindedly taps a tambourine from the back of the stage and lets the lament play out instrumentally.

To lift the mood the tale is moved to the 1960s and an image of the cast of Easy Rider appears on the screen. The acid trip scene in the film is described as taking place at Evans grave, ‘Peter Fonda is inconsolable and Toni Basil is dreaming of a random novelty puppet’, at which point her song “Mickey” booms over the PA. ‘It’s a fitting end to the story of John Evans.’

Rhys acknowledges that it’s been an evening of history as much as music and introduces the last song with the words ‘That’s basically the background about this explorer, we’re now ready to start the set.’ “100 Unread Messages” is a rockabilly treat which channels Johnny Cash. Musically it’s the highlight of the evening, with his guitarist matching Elvis’s Scotty Moore, the song then falls into insane psychedelia.

The encores are predominantly from his solo records – there are no Super Furry Animals songs – as well as his out there jazz soundtrack to the Dylan Thomas biopic “Set Fire To The Stars”. “Gwn Mi Wn” from Yr Atal Genhedlaeth is Captain Beefheart backed by The Who. “Honey All Over” evokes The Kinks, a beautiful bliss-out on love and is his “Lay Lady Lay”. He finishes with “Year Of The Dog” from American Interior. Reminiscent of Super Furry Animals “Mountain People” it stops and mutates into a giddy coda and he finishes the evening holding up a raft of placards with the instructions “Prolonged Applause”, “Louder”, “Apeshit”, “Thank You” and, finally, “The End”.

This isn’t a straightforward rock and roll concert, nor is it intended to be, the slideshow and spoken narrative are as important as the songs. The way John Evans story is told tonight is both laconic and touching; it’s a tremendous display of Gruff Rhys’s humour, charisma and originality.