Gruff Rhys @ Toynbee Studios, London

I'm sure I've been to this East London venue a few times before, but for some reason whenever I enter its stratosphere I feel like I've stumbled across the Bermuda Triangle - everything seems back to front, east becomes west, I begin to suspect street signs of lying to me... and panic ensues.

After a quick dash into a taxi rank where I'm advised that the venue is "next door", I finally arrive to see my friend Paul, who's been waiting on his own for so long he's consumed five pints of beer. He seems quite proud of this, until he starts needing the bathroom every thirty seconds.

Paul and me used to be in a band called El Slut around 1999, and it was during that time that we decided we both loved the Super Furry Animals. It's suitable then, that we're catching up with each other at the London leg of Gruff Rhys' tour, as the Furries singer gears up to release his third solo album Hotel Shampoo.

As anyone who's half familiar with Gruff knows, the Welshman is as subtly hilarious as he is melodically gifted. We get surreal introductions ("This is the first song I have ever written with the word 'Poland' in it"), we get weird sound effects (Gruff has a table full of bird noises, vocal loop pedals and glow in the dark keyboards) and we get huge signs which advise the audience (such as 'RESIST PHONY ENCORES'). It's impossible not to grin from tooth to tooth while all this is going on.

Of course, the songs are ace too. From the new album, the mysteriously melancholy new single 'Shark Ridden Waters' gets played twice (the second time under the guise of a karaoke singalong), the Spanish party-flavoured 'Sensations In The Dark' is an exotic highlight, and 'If We Were Words We Would Rhyme' makes for a heart-tweaking and poetic love song.

Lisa Jen comes onstage during the middle to perform songs from (second album) Candylion, providing some Celtic spookiness on 'Lonesome Words', while later on Gruff sends a glimmer of sadness around the room with the downbeat Super Furry Animals ballad 'Cryndod Yn Dy Lais'.

As you'd expect however, things end on a charismatic high; the support act H Hawkline re-emerge to provide some drums and guitar to a knowingly cheesy (but ultimately uplifting) nursery-rhyme singalong.

Paul dashes off to the toilet one last time, then it's out into the freezer to walk home. The verdict is unanimous: Hotel Shampoo is going to be a deeply cleansing experience.



Pic: Stuart Westwood