Cosmo Jarvis / The Skunk-Boy Project

There's a sense of anticipation brewing at the Musician in Leicester tonight. It's a Friday night and the assembled diverse throng are waiting patiently for their man and his band to take to the stage. It's an eclectic mix of punters ready for some action to kickstart their weekend. We've got schoolgirls, undergraduates, pensioners, punks, political activists and people dressed as pirates all here to see what non-specific genre cocktail Cosmo Jarvis will serve up tonight.

But first The Skunk-Boy Project takes to the stage. The Skunk Boy Project is actually Nate Swettenham and his ukulele. With hair more badger boy than skunk boy, Nate is what might happen if Noah & The Whale did cover versions of George Formby songs. A Leicestershire lad who's now living in Cardiff he soon gets those paying attention onside by telling all that he prefers playing here. He informs us he played here before just weeks before - a show I was also at and if I'm honest a show at which he was better. On that night Nate played half with ukulele and half with backing track. But his ipod is emitting an almighty fuzz so it's eight songs just with ukulele and there's not enough variety to hold my attention. Stand out track 'Fourth On My List Of Loveable Evil Dictators' still sounds like a hit single waiting to happen though and there's no doubting the fact that there's an original lyricist and talented songwriter here.



Cosmo Jarvis has been a regular visitor to Leicester in recent years and the decent turnout is testimony to what can happen if you build your regional audience from the base up. I talk to a few people whilst we're waiting for the band to arrive who are Cosmo virgins - dragged to see him because of their mates strong recommendation. There's a fair bit of love in the room. This is no Tuesday night in Coventry.

It's a rockier, edgier sound than we get on record. Some have criticised Cosmo's last album for sounding too safe but we see none of that tonight. Launching off with 'Sure As Hell Not Jesus' it's immediately obvious that Cosmo, adorned in a crumpled Panthera T-shirt, and band are going for it tonight. This is going to be an energetic no holds barred set. Each song is sounding punchier than on disc and there's little time to breathe as they pound along with Cosmo simply saying between most, "Thanks, this is the next song." There's a dry wit and a dopey boy twinkle in his eyes seemingly lost on most of the crowd.

We know that we're going to get genre-hopping with Cosmo. He seems to delight in not being able to be pigeon-holed and tonight is no exception. Effortlessly swapping between instruments before the gig is even half an hour old we're treated to the reggae tinges of 'She Doesn't Mind', the bass-chord heavy pop of 'Love This' and the Americana fuelled cover of the old Grateful Dead tune, 'Friend of The Devil'. There's a tendency towards the heavier songs in his compendium and as the set progresses a mini mosh pit develops for the angry offloading of 'Good Citizen' , 'Sunshine' and a new song nominally called 'Pay with Nightmares'. There's no danger of the crowd not liking this morphing as it does from a T Rex intro into the Stone Roses if they were ever to play Download.



Indeed, here's a band not afraid to mix old with new and there's a splattering of new tracks throughout the set tonight. The highlight of these for me was a tune which might have been called, 'I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.' It could have been called, 'Half a Man', 'Walking so Damn Long' or something entirely different. Hell, It might not even have been a new song. But in this Country bound beauty I think Cosmo is getting to the essence of what he's about - this is a song which seems to mesh excitable, impish, world is your oyster optimism with a sense of all-knowing fatalistic regret. I bet it's going to be in the soundtrack for his newly planned film, 'Abandoned Hope.' It's contrasts such as this that help the gig to simply work tonight. Cosmo has a childlike vulnerability which is in sharp contrast to his bulky physique and bulldog neck. Physically and sometimes when the angry vocal kicks in I'm reminded of Henry Rollins yet there's also tender little lost boy moments which you'd never get from Rollins.

It's a sign of an excellent gig that it passes in a blur. We're treated to nigh-on twenty songs tonight but it feels like ten. We know we're now embarking on the final part of the voyage when the folk led intro of 'Gay Pirates' kicks in. Strangers (perhaps called Sebastian) put their arms around each other and attempt to get jiggy, tables get knocked over, broken glass merges with ice on the floor, wine and rum is spilt and a jolly good time is had by all (except for Roger). There is an encore; the merchandise desk seems to do a decent trade in pieces of eight and there's a sense that this party isn't going to stop anytime soon. There's no doubt in my mind that Cosmo Jarvis should be a name more widely known than it is. I leave to head home with the words from the chorus of his excellent song 'Whatever' rolling around my head, "I'm just walking through whatever to wherever and I'm never going to stop."

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.