Robert Forster seems to like schedules and to be on time. When we arrived at five past nine he had already started his set. He, himself and his guitar. He was singing the last song from The Evangelist, From Ghost Town, a haunting ballad about his bandmate Grant McLennan who unexpectedly died two years ago. A couple of songs later, the band joined in. After less than an hour there was a pause of exactly ten minutes before the band performed the second part of their set. And when they disappeared for the first time it took only a minute or so of clapping to make them come back. They reappeared two more times, they must love live shows. At the CD sale post there was a sign, Robert will be here six minutes after the end of the concert. I did not check but I am sure he was.

The Mousonturm was pretty full. But the youngish crowd was very reserved and did hardly move. Not that Robert's music is made for the dancefloor but still. Maybe this observation was reinforced by the fact that I didn't have any drinks except Apfelschorle (apple juice & fizzy water).

During the three encores which comprised seven songs they played a brilliant wild version of the Velvet Underground's Temptation Inside Your Heart. Adele Pickvance's funky bass guitar, what a delight.

Glenn Thompson, the second guitarist played all instruments at least for one song. The guitar, the keyboard, the drums and the bass guitar. His guitar playing technique was exquisite. Either with this jangly, chiming sound where you hit the strings only slightly or by using finger-picking which stresses the single notes and creates a discrete flow of chords.

The quartet played most songs in new arrangements. Robert seems to like to deconstruct his music a little like Bob Dylan does. Making it rougher, thrashing the melodies. There were quite a lot of songs I didn't recognise. Especially the keyboard seemed to be rather out of place sometimes. I got used to it at the end but in the beginning there was a third guitar missing badly. Not only the guitar of course. The songs Robert had chosen were mainly older Go-Betweens tunes plus six songs from his new album.

Links:

• Setlist of the gig at the Mousonturm, Frankfurt, September, 30th
• Nyctaper's mp3 download of the concert at Joe's Pub, New York, September, 15th