Gig review: King Creosote + Emily Barker at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

A conga is the last thing most people would expect at a gig by King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson). The Fife singer-songwriter is known for songs about depression, heartbreak, and death (his latest album, I DES, is an anagram for ‘dies’). Novelty line dances seem an ill fit for such themes, yet he leads the bemused crowd around the floor while his six-piece band play an extended instrumental passage to Amanda Lear’s 1978 disco hit Follow Me.

There’s a weird kind of logic to this end of show party. Melancholy may pervade his indie-folk, which is given a more electronic twist here due to the presence of samplers and ambient drones. But this mood is often counterbalanced with life-affirming swells, as on Burial Bleak, or through lyrical details. Blue Marbled Elm Trees may anticipate his own death, but it lifts into gratitude with the refrain, “I shan’t complain / I had the best time laughing with my girls.”

It’s an interest in the domestic that he shares with support act Emily Barker, who also plays in his touring band. The Australian peppers songs with picture precise images, such as a, “National Geographic photo / That’s been ripped out of a magazine” (With Small We Start).

Her literacy makes a natural transition to poetry – she published her debut collection Where The Black Swans Swim earlier this year – but it’s her melodies that last. Call It A Day, with its Joni Mitchell guitar phrasings, has immediate impact but it’s the country Sad Song, which breaks down to just voice and finger clicks, that shows her versatile craft.

A natural show woman, she seems to have a blast when she reappears alongside Anderson. The pair play acoustic guitars and jump in time to opener It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us, their matching grins distracting from a mix in which the electronic instruments struggle to gel with the acoustic ones.

This sound balance means it’s often the simplest tracks that work most effectively. Walter de la Nightmare, on which Mairearad Green takes the lead on accordion, has a desperate sadness while Ides pulls heartbreak from voice and e-piano. Susie Mullen, with its Pictish Trail blend of modular synths and thumping drums, is the most successful track in which he takes his sound in a more electronic direction.

Playing 2023’s I DES in full and in track order, hits are thin on the ground. Fans are eventually rewarded with the unusually upbeat indie-pop For One Night Only, but with over 40 studio albums and counting, the joy of a King Creosote show is its unpredictability. Conga line and all.