Callum Easter TV Special @ Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 25 Jan

It's Burns Night in Edinburgh, and as tradition would dictate, a lone piper is skirling a Highland refrain as a platter of haggis is solemnly delivered to the master of ceremonies. In a break from tradition, the backdrop includes a dominatrix named Mistress Inka who is whipping an electric guitar to produce a howl of feedback, and the MC in question is Edinburgh’s very own punk poet, Callum Easter. 

Tonight’s TV Special show, part of the Burns & Beyond season, is a masterclass in subverting expectations. Easter leads the audience from bemused bewilderment to fervent adulation over the course of a couple of hours, with plenty of time for special guests in between his own numbers. 

Perhaps the most captivating intermission comes from Michael Pedersen, award-winning poet and Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, who regales the audience with his tale of life as the Cat Prince. Just as noteworthy, however, are the two sections of the show which feature videos of chase scenes, the first a police pursuit of a motorbike soundtracked by a solo trombonist. By the time the second car chase comes around, accompanied by a hectic drum solo from sometimes Young Fathers’ sticksman Edwin McLachlan, the audience know what to expect, but the result is no less arresting. 

This would all be one big novelty act if the songs weren’t so good. Easter rocks from side to side, accordion clutched tightly to his chest, with most tracks delivered alongside his backing band The Roulettes. There’s a moment during a triumphant Feelings Gone towards the end of the show where you sense that the audience have simultaneously swallowed the same medicine at just the right moment. It's a communal experience worthy of any Burns Supper. 

Between songs Easter prowls the stage like an Auld Reekie Roy Keane, dishing out brown paper envelopes to the participants as they exit the stage. And if there are quibbles – the room is laid out in such a way as to make you feel like you’re right at the back wherever you are, and some of the interludes serve to disrupt the rhythm rather than contribute to the show – these are quickly forgotten in the context of a truly remarkable evening. 

The word 'psychedelic' is much overused in popular culture, and over the past couple of decades has taken on a kitsch vibe, all Austin Powers and hippie hippie shakes. The kind of psychedelia that Callum Easter delivers is a lot more intravenous, a primitive primal scream, Scottish country dance on acid. This is a show where it’s impossible to tell if things are going to plan, falling apart, or falling apart according to a plan. Only Callum Easter knows for sure.

---

Burns & Beyond runs until 11 Feb; find more info at burnsandbeyond.com

Find out more about Callum Easter at callumeaster.com