Nothing Gruff About Rhys' Low-Key Set

On a Tuesday night in Nashville, a little patch of Welsh-pop only goes so far. Gruff Rhys learned this lesson at the Mercy Lounge.

Super Furry Animals generally escape the notice of American music fans; a string of uneven albums in the past 5-6 years has not helped. Their prolific singer, who participated in the Sparklehorse/Danger Mouse Dark Night of the Soul project andreceived surprisingly good promotion (a write-up in the Scene) found no greater warmth from Nashville. At most, 50 people listened to his set. By the time he finished the first song solely in Welsh, it winnowed to 35.

Crowd size does not determine quality of a show. Rhys started slow, stuttering through his thick Welsh accent. When an effects pedal failed to work, he turned battery replacement into performance art and pronounced the act a new song called "Battery Change." He alternated between piano and acoustic guitar.

His new album Hotel Shampoo took up most of the set. The mid-tempo rock songs eschewed the "everything and the kitchen sink" feel of SFA songs for a more typical rock setup. Quality songwriting shone through on If We Were Words (We Would Rhyme), Sophie Softly and Honey All Over. When played live, the similar melodies that inhabit and sometimes hamper Rhys' songs were much less obvious.

He peppered the set with an ample supply of Welsh-language tunes. SFA wrote Mwng, a gentle acoustic album sung entirely in Welsh, and many singles that pushed their native language into alternative rock.

The music was most effective here. Rhys' delivery displays Welsh as an expressive language, his emotions shining through words none in the audience could translate - Call it the Sigur Ros Effect. At least Rhys sang in a living language, albeit one spoke fluently by just 600,000 people.

Overall, Rhys his crew could have used a bit more energy and stage presence. Splashing in a SFA tune would not have hurt, since the reception wipes out any shot of Rhys' main band trekking to Music City.