Circus of Invention were the only band on at Mr Wolf's tonight, so we had a DJ set on first and the band went on around 10.30pm. We'd turned up early so we took the opportunity to photograph the sound check and sample the superb noodles and a pint of Red Stripe.

We've just invested in a Nikon digital SLR which we're still learning to use. We're already amazed at the results, and we're not even half way through the instructions!

The band size has varied between a 4-piece and a nine-piece. Anyway tonight they were a 5-piece. Jassen on lead guitar and vocals, solidly backed up by Owen Thompson on Bass and Ollie Emanuel on Drums. Ollie Clutterbuck played sax, woodwind, Korg Synth and blow-up keyboard. The diminutive Mini Thompson was on tom tom and Korg Synth.

Circus Of Invention have been described as 'alternative', but that doesn't prepare you for what you hear.

The nearest thing that came to mind for the vocal style was Alex Harvey in his wilder days.

For the music there was rock in the mix along with some Jazz and funk, and a bit of reggae. We went into experimental territory for sure, and even a touch of Burlesque, which was highlighted by the inputs of Mini and Ollie C.

The solid core unit of Jassen, Owen and Ollie Emanuel is essentially rock-driven and they can stand alone as a three-piece - which in fact they did for a couple of numbers.

Where Ollie Clutterbuck and Mini come in is to provide the breadth of sound, with their array of instruments. It is these two who give Circus the range to go off on some amazing and unpredictable journeys.

Jassen is the hyper and charismatic frontman who welds these two totally different units together. In between songs he treated us to some amazing solo rap/poetry with a rapid-fire delivery.

Jassen is a non-stop bundle of energy on stage working his guitar hard and he is almost guaranteed to break a string every gig. This happened around half way through, but Jassen just continued on 5 strings with the sixth waving around on the end of his guitar.

Jassen moved over to detuned Bass for Beautiful Ones, and Mini chipped in on Korg which gave the song an almost Stranglers feel.

Owen is right there at Jassen's shoulder and with the superb and versatile drummer Ollie Emanuel these two form the solid foundation that allows Jessen and the rest of the band to explore their full range of sounds and styles.

Mini alternated between hunching over the Korg and playing the tom-tom. There was a delicious interplay between drums and tom tom on Desolation Style Park Bench Blues, with the sax adding to the seedy burlesque feel to the song.

I recognised the lead mic stuck out in the audience from last time, and sure enough near the end Jassen sent it flying.

A bit of a disappointing crowd for a Thursday, probably less than 40, but there were a lot of die-hard fans in the audience which gave a really great, almost family feel to the event.

This is one band we definitely recommend seeing live.

We've had Circus Of Invention's album for a few months, but seeing the band live brought a whole new slant to the songs we thought we knew.

So, overall another superb evening with another top band who deserve to go places.

Kev&Chris@BristolBands.com