Jeffrey Lewis and Peter Stampfel / Lach, Mono, 1 June

Jeffrey Lewis has always been astute in his choice of collaborators, and his work with 60s psych-folk survivor Peter Stampfel continues to be endearingly bonkers. The sense of rootedness in an American counter-cultural tradition is also evident in a support slot tonight from Lach, a central figure in New York’s anti-folk movement, whom Lewis acknowledges as a driving force behind his own development as a live performer.

Lach’s songs range, in a seemingly free-associative style, across subjects including high-school cliques, watching The Wizard of Oz on acid, and unsettling encounters in peep shows. It’s a set of topics which complements Lewis and Stampfel’s similarly hallucinogen-addled stories and anecdotes; familiar highlights include Stampfel’s ode to bottle cap design (complete with slideshow), and Demon in the Ground, an inspired subversion of Spirit in the Sky.

 Behind the humour, however, there’s a rare earnestness to Lewis’ contributions, which illustrates the faith he still holds in the values of 60s counterculture; WWPRD (What Would Pussy Riot Do?) is a sustained defence of the idea that guitar music still can — and should — challenge political authority. Lewis’ unfashionable adherence to such maxims demonstrates the integrity and independence he’s inherited from figures like Lach and Stampfel.