Jablkon played to a sold-out venue on the opening night of their first Irish tour, but surely only one person in the audience had a clue what they were in for.
That man, the stand-up-comedy impresario Naoise Nunn - who manages the AprΦs Match team - was doubtless breathing a deserved sigh of relief that his hunch in bringing over this almost uncategoriseable Czech guitar-based quartet had fallen on fruitful ground.
They were described in Nunn's publicity material as "the musical equivalent of Franz Kafka", and it would be hard to better such a crisp judgment.
There was absurdism and virtuosity in equal measure, and a distinctly European intensity to the whole.
A few other speculative reference points may prove useful, or at least enticing: the opening number, easing us in gently, sounded like Classical Gas; the next sounded like Classical Gas and Purple Haze, as played simultaneously by Robert Fripp on a nylon-stringed instrument.
The rest of the set sounded like a burlesque deconstruction of Focus, the 1970s Dutch prog-jazz-classical fusioneers, and an act never far from a quirky sense of humour themselves.
Most of all, though, the overall vibe, conceptually rather than musically, was of a group that mix a sincere belief in their mostly folk-based musical inspirations with a post-modernist mischief, very much in the spirit of early Horslips. You can catch them on a short tour for the rest of the week.
Jablkon are at Cleeres in Kilkenny today, at Menagerie in Belfast tomorrow and at The Shelter @ Vicar Street in Dublin on Sunday
