Bill Callahan @ Kulturkirken Jakob, Oslo

Tremendous live set in Oslo tonight from the former Mr Smog, Bill Callahan, backed by Matt Kinsey on guitar and Neal Morgan on drums. Fabulous venue too. Unlike a previous occasion seeing Smog in Edinburgh, there were no real time constraints on the band. Meant I missed a lot of My Morning Jacket's set at Sentrum Scene just down the road, but nevertheless I got to see an hour of them. Still, I'd take a single Bill Callahan encore over a full set from all but a handful of bands in the world. He never did play one of my favourites from his last album as Smog, The Well, but quite a few folk yelled out for it. (Generally an inadvisable pursuit - once I saw Smog at La Belle Angele in Edinburgh and someone yelled out for Ex-Con. Callahan said: "I'll play Ex-Con, sure. So long as you stand up on stage here and let me punch you as hard as I can in the stomach." There were no more shouted requests.)
The Well - a couple of hoots, a hello, and a fuck all y'all