Sunday 25/11/07 Patrick Wolf, Lightspeed Champion @ The Lowry Theatre, Manchester

If gigs were based on first impressions many bands would have mass walkouts before a note was played. Look at Tilly and the Wall- colourful costumes, a tap dancer. Who would think it could work? Well it does. Same goes for Patrick Wolf. Dressed like a lost boy gone wild in a Technicolor dressing up box, in another person’s hands the songs could go unnoticed due to the visual feast before your eyes.

Before Patrick takes to the stage in a relatively conservative shiny waistcoat, crop trousers and shiny blue shoes ensemble Lightspeed Champion plays his one man folk to the seated audience.  Covers of Eugene McGuiness and The Strokes mix in with recent single ‘Midnight Surprise’, a song he “wrote 2 nights ago” and other songs from his forthcoming album. His guitar driven melodies show the inspiration of Bright Eyes with a distinctly English ethos. It’s lo-fi, beautiful stuff.

There are enough instruments for an orchestra onstage, but only one man to play them. With the stage adorned with a dolls house, a shrine and a giraffe Patrick Wolf gets off to a slow start. If this was someone’s first time with Wolf they’d think he was an overrated talentless fool. He attempts to play a primitive Moog synthesiser, making a racket unlike the controlled chaos of glitches found on record. Bum notes are hit, melodies disappear as quickly as they appear.

Then, through accident or emergency (do you see what I did there?) it all comes together. Strumming a ukelele Wolf stops looking befuddled by the gig and more like the kaleidoscopic indie auteur he is. New song ‘Hard Times’ is back to ‘Wind In The Wires’ polished melodies. Playing a set stopping off at every point of his career, from the piano cry of ‘Paris’ to the throwaway joy of ‘Accident & Emergency’, the between song chat sheds further light on the forces that drive the enigma. Lightspeed Champion joins Wolf for a pitch perfect finale of ‘Magic Position’ It is an utter triumph for one of the few originals left in music.