Hamell On Trial: Upstairs At The Garage, London

"EVERYONE HERE'S very nice to me. Shutthefuckup when I'm talkin'!" The self-described "bald, sweaty fucker on stage", Ed Hamell, of Syracuse, New York, is dressed in Colonel Kurtz black, short with a knuckle-ridged skull, and is wired to the moon on nerves, neurosis, an urgent need to perform his fucked-up low-life narratives, and disbelief that, on his headline UK debut, this small venue is jammed with fans ready to heckle, converse, roar approval and generally amp up the feeling that tonight really matters to them all.