Friday 22/06/07 Bob Log III, Lady Strangelove @ Jive, Adelaide

Lady Strangelove haven’t got a new drummer – it’s actually just an illusion created by the addition of a beard and more hair – but you’d be forgiven for thinking that they have. The improvement in his playing is marked, and takes the band to a level they haven’t quite reached before. That’s no mean feat: they’ve already impressed Gigwise with their heavy psychedelic beats. Though the video backdrop has changed and everything about them is tighter, the set is broadly similar. Three minute pop songs still aren’t their thing, and the lyrics are scarcely any more intelligible. And there’s something else that hasn’t changed: this is still the sort of music that brings an insane grin to the face.

Time, then, for today’s big question: how the hell do you describe Bob Log III in ten words or less? The answer is simple. You don’t even try. After all, we’re talking about a one-man band who plays old-time gutbucket blues guitar and a rudimentary drum kit while wearing a full-face crash helmet and singing through a telephone handset that’s attached to the visor.

Someone dressed up in the same gear beats him to the stage, but the impostor is soon sent packing so that Bob can have the spotlight to himself. A little later he decides to show off his new jacket and guitar case, and demands that Mr Light Guy takes the levels down. It turns out that Bob’s name is picked out across his back with a flexible tube of light, and the inside of the guitar case is decorated like a Christmas tree. These introductions, like everything else that Log does, are met with hoots of delight.

The guitar playing is relatively simple and repetitive, but no less effective for that: it does what it needs to, which is often nothing much more than filling out the beat in as hypnotic a manner as possible. There’s plenty of slide work thrown in to add some interest, but it has to be said that the songs are very similar to one another. The tunings seem to get lower throughout the set, and there’s what looks like gaffer tape wrapped around the headstock, just behind the nut, holding the strings in place for when they get really loose.