Mark Linkous is standing up straight again, following an accident which left him temporarily using a wheelchair. His music still sounds supine, a languid back-porch twang which intermittently cranks into life like a creaky Studebaker engine.
Sparklehorse emerged once again from the mottled vistas of Virginia to play their first Irish concert at Whelans in Wexford Street. The audience was hushed as Linkous whispered the ephemeral words of Spirit Ditch while a ghostly taped radio voice wafted on the periphery and the lonely violin of Jonathan Segel cut through the atmosphere.
Sporting a stetson and grey suit, Linkous controlled his vocals, but when he switched from his main mic to a second effects mic, the twisted, distorted sound filled the room.
They may slot nicely into the US y'alternative scene, but Sparklehorse also plough the same musical furrow as Eels, digging into the damaged innards of the mind and pulling out a few wires here and there.
The band's two albums, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider, are dark, debris-filled garages strewn with the broken remains of old emotions.
Live, Sparklehorse demand your indulgence while Linkous tinkers around on slow-burning tunes such as Saint Mary, All Night Home and Home- coming Queen, but your patience is rewarded when the band fires up on all cylinders, as on Saturday, Painbirds and Hammering The Cramps.
