Thumpasaurus @ Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh, 10 Aug

At the Fringe, anything goes. You want whacky stand-up comedy sets at 3am? You got it. You want cabaret in the midst of a hot summer night? That too. So, as we roll on up to the ever-bustling Cowgate ready to see the mighty funk-rock band by the name of Thumpasurus, we’re prepared for anything.

Upon arrival, we’re led into an attic-style room where we’re greeted by the band members conversing in amongst the crowd, dressed in eerie purple gowns. The music from Space Odyssey blares through the speakers as a projector snaps to a shot of a hedgehog, zooming further and further in on the little guy’s face. As the intro halts, the band emerge in silver jumpsuits with ‘Thump’ printed on their backs and burst into some slick funk rhythms.

The five-piece, consisting of frontman/guitarist Lucas Tamaren, saxophonist Henry Solomon keyboard-wizard Paul Cornish, slick bassist Logan Kane and drummer Henry Was, show off their incredible musical talent, with fuzzy riffs and dance-grooves aplenty. With tricks and flicks not unlike the sounds of Talking Heads and Black Flag, they take no time in getting into their stride, with the small crowd by the front of the stage shaking and shimmying the night away. We also have to give a special shout-out to bass player Kane whose fingers almost catch fire due to the pace they blaze up and down his guitar neck making for some seriously nifty bass work.

As musically gifted as the quintet are they don’t take themselves too seriously and it all makes for a bit of a laugh. Tamaren’s silly choppy delivery across tongue-in-cheek titles like Mental Karate and I’m Too Funky (which has some great lines by the way) are even funnier when you see the accompanying projected animations and poorly drawn Microsoft Paint images behind them. Saying that, most of the fifty or so people in this tiny attic venue are pretty boozy so the humour may go amiss with the amount of drunk dancing going on. As Thump draw their groove-filled, funk-fest of a set to a close there’s not many in the room who haven’t had a bloody good time.