Go-Kart Mozart
Star and Shadow Cinema
Newcastle-upon-Tyne

FOR a band which rarely tours, who’d have thought Go-Kart Mozart would make absolute sense performing live? Fronted by the endearingly eccentric Lawrence, GKM may lack the crystalline perfection or comely swagger of his previous bands Felt and Denim but they exude a delirious cartoonish logic which is all their own.

In a parallel universe Lawrence — the man who could put the “arch” into The Archies — would have his own animated series in which he drives around the country in a van, plays gigs and solves mysteries.

Go-Kart Mozart’s gloriously bonkers new album Mozart’s Mini-Mart forms the backbone of tonight’s show at the equally oddball Star and Shadow Cinema. Familiar Lawrence signifiers are all present and correct — Wendy Carlos on the sound system, 1970s soft-rock cultural references, wonky synthesisers and some slightly pervy subject matter.