There is a running joke in Jason Byrne shows: there is no show. There is a title, The Lovely Goat Show, there is an assortment of props (a toy goat, an umbrella, etc), there is a wacky picture of Byrne holding a leek and a vase on taxis all over Edinburgh. But, from the moment he emerges from a cloud of dry ice and pumping techno, all he does is take the piss out of the audience with his collection of silly walks and playground voices, clothing proceedings with a few scraps of material for decency's sake. The toy goat is never touched.
What Byrne's numerous fans enjoy, of course, is the anarchic atmosphere he generates, the feeling that this is a conventional gig that has dissolved into a chaos of gibbering distraction. What stops me from enjoying it - and this is my loss - is that I don't believe him. When a bewildered Byrne says, "Madness follows me everywhere," he acts as if doesn't welcome it. "It's best that we don't discuss this gig any further," he bawls in staggering desperation at the end of the show.
Why do I get the feeling he says that every night?
· Until August 29. Box office: 0131-226 2428
