Jeffrey Lewis, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

K-X-P are one of those bands that even the most seasoned of musical enthusiasts may tilt their heads at. They’re hard to place in terms of genre, they have no formative style or obvious overhanging influence, but they having said that, mind-bendingly good.

A ragtag trio from Helsinki, their music is straight out of murky, industrial depths. But the lengthy songs build gradually and with purpose, to a tribal crescendo with the rawest and most basic of appeals. The real driving force of their music is drummer Tomi Leppanen, who beats their songs to death with the precision of a metronome.

We can’t dispel the cloud of hype around them after tonight’s performance, it’s actually warranted.

It’s packed to the rafters here as Jeffrey Lewis sets up his stage, there’s no doubt that since the early days of his career, his fan base has grown and remained fiercely loyal. Whatever mantle Lewis has taken up: his Crass covers album, the onstage dioramas and his collaborations with a variety of musicians - his fans have always got so much more than a singer/songwriter, a tag that seems redundant on him now.

This time round he’s paired up with Peter Stampfel, half of the Hold Modal Rounders; a late 60s psych/garage band who some may remember from the Easy Rider soundtrack (though this is probably one of the tamer anecdotes of the evening.) Peter is in his late 70s, and for a few worrying minutes looks every day of his age as he mounts the stage. But once things have warmed up a little, and the band have breezed through a few old folk covers – he is brimming with wit and life. Jeff enjoys encouraging his anecdotes, and it goes down with more than polite tolerance: there’s a genuine interest in the air.

The strangest moment of the evening lies in a quick PowerPoint tour of Peter’s 10,000 strong bottle cap collection, with an accompanying ode to the joys they have brought their owner. It seems improbable that 400 people would stand entranced with photos of a bottle cap collection, but it’s an irresistible combination of odd and good humoured.

In terms of musical style and pace they compliment each other perfectly. After airing a few of Peter’s songs, including a delightful reworking of ‘Spirit in the Sky,’ Jeff rewards the crowd’s attention with a couple of his own from last album ‘Em Are I’ and a comic book retelling of two different revolutions: the French and the Soviet. It’s in the narrative form which Lewis’s genius shines through strongest; he might not be the best singer or guitar player but he is a born storyteller, and this has propelled him around the world so many times already. Like the man on the opposite side of the stage to him and his other most comparable influences, Dylan, Neil Young and Daniel Johnston to name a few - he seems incapable of slowing down his creative output.

As he bends over to fiddle with his guitar pedals, Jeffrey Lewis’ own lyrics spring to mind: ‘I’ve left a trail of myself every place that I’ve been through/and going bald is the most manly thing I’m ever gonna do.’ It’s such a simple kind of wisdom about life and mortality but at the same time so profound, and yet he’d probably tell you it was nothing that hadn’t been thought of already. So Lewis continues to be a reluctant sort of hero, eager to share the limelight with his own and all the more interesting for it.