大象传媒

The Cartoon Music salesman greets us as cats, "hey cats, how's it going?", but there's no doubting who's the Top Cat tonight. On leave of absence from the day-job, Strokes' guitarist Albert Hammond Jr is in Belfast to tout his solo wares, beautifully crafted, low maintenance rock, songs that revel in all that's good and bad about love. Tonight Hammond Jr sells nobody short.

With the Droopy Dawg face, electric shock hair and ghost-white, super-tight jeans, he makes for an alarmingly cool apparition. And what's most cool is that Hammond Jr doesn't play the role of disaffected rock star, content to glide on the goodwill that the audience obviously have for his full-time outfit. There's no doubting the passion as he clutches the microphone in a grip so tight that is seems knuckles must surely pop, imparting the lyrics to 'Call An Ambulance' with a sincerity that borders on the terrifying.

And where the album meanders sweetly, live songs such as 'In Transit' and '101' motor with real garage rock vigour, the band playing with ferocious intent, backing their leader to the hilt. However, despite the best exertions of the band it is Hammond Jr who, throughout, remains the central, riveting presence.

Cut loose from The Strokes, he plays fancy free, there are frenzied covers of Frank Black's 'Old Black Dawning' and of The Cars' 'Don't Cha Stop', Hammond Jr clearly enjoying the sense of liberation, nonchalant cool replaced by non-stop charisma. The closing 'Hard To Live In The City' gets to the heart of the matter, a metaphor for life in an A-list rock band? Who knows, but, for tonight at least, Hammond Jr gets to take things back to a more personal level. Albert, it's been good knowing you.

Francis Jones