Neon Neon at the Button Factory, Dublin on Thursday 12th September 2013

It’s hard not to like Gruff Rhys. If his 10 album back catalogue with the Super Furry Animals, and their ‘back catalogue bingo’ shows of the past, doesn’t appeal to you, he also has three solo albums in two different languages. Then, of course, comes Neon Neon, Rhys’ collaboration with hip hop producer Boom Bip.

The two have released two concept albums; ‘Stainless Style’ about John DeLorean (him of the Back to the Future car fame) and ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’, about millionaire publisher and left-wing activist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (no, I hadn’t heard of him either).

Before the duo and their support cast enter the stage, the PA plays an old style news report about the life and death of Feltrinelli. While it gives audience members who hadn’t bothered to check out his Wikipedia page a brief history of the man, by the fourth iteration of the report the crowd have been waiting around for nearly 15 minutes and are growing restless.

When the band do arrive though, it’s worth the wait. While ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’ may have been a disappointment for fans – it just didn’t have the same quality of songs as ‘Stainless Style’ – live, the tracks sound so much better; more distinctive where they seem to meld together on CD. It helps too that Rhys cuts a humble, humorous figure behind the keyboard.

“We feel that there aren’t enough songs about the manuscript of Dr Zhivago being smuggled out of the Soviet Union. So we wrote two,” he says introducing Hammer and Sickle after Dr Zhivago; a stomper of an electro ballad that would probably be on every 80s compilation album had it not been released 30 years too late.

All the while, video footage of Feltrinelli – looks like Groucho Marx, thinks like Karl Marx – plays on the screens in the background. The footage of Feltrinelli playing basketball with Fidel Castro, which accompanies Hoops with Fidel, may not be legitimate archive footage though.

After the death of Giangiacomo, summed up on Ciao Feltrinelli, and after one of several hundred ‘ta-very-much’es from Ryhs, we are transported from Milan 1972 to 1980s Belfast; a world of linear computer graphic and futuristic stainless steel cars.

The change in the audience, who had been quietly enjoying the show up to now, is instantly noticeable. The crowd sing along to I Told Her on Alderaan and there is so much more energy in the room.

“This is a song about a meeting between John DeLorean and Michael Douglas in a Hollywood nightclub which, after extensive research, I’m still not sure ever actually took place,” says Rhys introducing the fantastic, chorus-heavy Michael Douglas.

The highpoint of the show though is Raquel. The crowd cheer during the “Your Irish mother made you a star” line but the atmosphere goes up a notch when Rhys starts holding up cardboard signs placed at the side of the stage. “Applause” reads the first one to a suitable audience response. He turns it over to read “Louder” before revealing another sign reading “Ape Shit”. The crowd obliges.

The band exit the stage and return with a sign reading “Resist Phony Encores”. Maybe Neon Neon should have taken their own advice as Sweat Shop and The Leopard fall flat compared to what has come before.

Whether or not Neon Neon continue is something only time will tell. For now, they have left us with some great music and a fantastically enjoyable live show.