Matt Berry @ The Kazimer review

Entering on stage with a full entourage of musicians (The Maypoles), Matt Berry meant business. Going straight into Devil Inside me, Matt was a man on a mission.People obviously think of him as "that guy from the I.T. crowd but watching him onstage that image soon fell away as his voice, which seemed a lot richer than the last time we saw him, took over the Kazimier. 

Going into the title track of his album Opium and through tracks from the WitchHazel album he was certainly not one for a lack of material. Starting with a low, pagen-esque style then throwing the audience into a full on tour de force Matt was beginning to get thirsty and on the search for some Corona. When offered a can of Red Stripe but an audience member he politely refused saying that "it was full of salt"

Once locating the much sought after mystical Corona (it was in a box behind the guitarist) Matt went into Snuff Box. A track that was featured in the movie DREDD and as Matt stated "god knows why" but it kept the crowd happy anyway.

A brief interlude was much needed and Matt served up a cocktail of TV theme tunes starting with Are you being served and then into Sorry with a wonderful touch of the lift commentary to accompany the former...going down!

Then the audience were taken on a bit if a journey.....starting with a gentle flowing notes and what you would expect to hear from an enchanted forest it built up slowly with symbols crashing and the bass drum kicking in to an instrumental medley that kept building and building in intensity till Matt and Cecilia's gentle vocals came back in then ended on a symbol crescendo.

They ended the set, after their encore, by being joined on stage by the lead singer of their support group Pugwash, Thomas Walsh, and decided to bring the house down with a rip roaring performance of Live and let die by wings.

Matt Berry may be known best for his comedy but musically the man and the group and superb. Moving from funk to jazz in a beat of an eye and some of the tightest and most talented musicians I've seen in a long time and mesmerising to watch and thoroughly entertaining throughout.

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