Duty Free: Paul Vickers and the Leg @ Cabaret Voltaire, 29 Jan

Paul Vickers doles out rationale to the audience for what his group are about to perform, a "little opera of the heart" titled Itchy Grumble. Like the Fall performing a tragic comedy - if they weren't already - Paul Vickers and the Leg vent a blitz of a performance, uneasy power and dischord, like that second of shock before pain strikes. Where the Fall are completely dominated by the personality that is Mark E. Smith, the Leg are more than an equal to Vickers. Hidden behind wonderful red felt masks and searing feedback, they counter his drawling tales of ale and drear, a blind link between James Kelman and Fungus the Bogeyman. Vickers, on the other hand, has yet to truly expand his persona before this band will start to really mean something, his movements still too apologetic, too explanatory. If this is art Paul, you can forget the audience. [Jamie Scott]