R. Stevie Moore - Café Oto, London 15/5/14

20 May 2014, 14:00 | Written by Ami Lord

(Live)

(R. Stevie Moore)

A cheer erupts as the Tennessean songwriter mooches through the crowd in a rather tatty green anorak and blue pyjama trousers at Dalston’s bohemian Café Oto. With his massive white beard and dishevelled hair, he looks as if Santa hit the bottle and got kicked out of home. He spends a few minutes wandering around the stage, as if looking for lost keys, before whimsically sitting down at the grand piano and improvises an avant-garde selection of chords as the rest of his band join him on stage and start to pick up their instruments.

”Happy Mothers’ Day” he bellows out, and then tells his band to take their time. “I’m not ready yet, I was born late”, whilst still banging out a random selection of notes. He looks around the room “I like this place, we’re having an indie party!” and suddenly the rest of the band kicks in, to what sounds like a progressive jazz explosion.

Watching R. Stevie Moore is about as unpredictable as it gets; he has a back catalogue of over 400 home recorded albums to draw upon, what sometimes seems like inconsequential ramblings will turn seamlessly into anything from a 70’s lo-fi trash riff, to an incredibly well executed jazz rhythm and most things in-between.

He enjoys toying with the crowd, after just 20 minutes on stage he declares “Thank you and good night” and walks off. The cries for encore are relentless as he goes backstage, and then coming back through the crowd, he sits down in the front row and joins in. His band chat at the back of the stage, seeming like they’re none the wiser as to what he’ll do next either. Eventually, with a cry of “Let’s get hammered! We’re having an indie party!” he returns to play for another 45 minutes. The set includes few more of his better known songs, which get the room singing and dancing along. Highlights include a psych-rock inflected version of “I Like To Stay Home”, and the Ian Dury-esque “Conflict of Interest”. He turns banter with the crowd into accomplished poetry and back again, which makes for an inclusive, laid back atmosphere.

The band look like they’re having the time of their life, but amongst the jumping around and throwing guitars in the air the quality of the musicianship is astoundingly high, towards the end of the set one song transforms into a drum solo that would have given Ginger Baker a run for his money, and they all flit between styles at Moore’s erratic cues without batting an eyelid.

At the end of the set he returns to stage to roar into the microphone “One Direction!”, and the room erupts with applause. Upon seeing the show it’s easy to see how he could have recorded so many albums – it seems as though creating music comes more naturally to him than breathing. It’s impossible to tell where the line between insanity and genius lies but it makes you realise that it doesn’t really matter.