THREE MEN ON A BOAT

I looked at Rory.

"You could totally do that," I said, switching my eyes back to the young singer songwriter strumming away at his guitar. Rich agreed and Rory looked thoughtful.

We were at a Sofar Sounds gig, on an open-top barge next to a fancy restaurant on the canal. Fairy lights hung across the windows and above, the open sky was thick with sunset clouds.

The idea of Sofar Sounds is that you don't know who's playing beforehand; you register, turn up and enjoy the music. Or, you don't, I suppose but it's usually varied enough. Rory was loving it - it would be exactly the kind of thing he could perform at.

The young singer songwriter was the first act and was almost the epitome of every other young singer songwriter: checkered shirt, skinny jeans, converse, old guitar, cool hair, vocals like the guy from the Arctic Monkeys, mumbling inaudibly between songs and then belting out lyrics about crazy cat-ladies and not being able to believe his girlfriend was really his girlfriend... you know the kind of thing. He sang six songs, including one about how everyone is writing a novel, which made me chuckle from behind a pint glass.

The second act took using-a-loop-pedal to a whole new level. Loop pedals allow you to record a pattern and then layer other stuff over the top of it, live and in the room. This guy layered cahon, bass, flute, sax, acoustic and his vocals into a swirling orchestra of folky sounds. We were captivated. Especially Rory; Rory loves a loop pedal.

"I tend to listen to the melody rather than the lyrics," said Rich, thoughtfully, afterwards. I said I was a lyrics-guy, which is true. I didn't point out that one of the songs was clearly about smoking pot.

The third act was a group of young guys with guitars.

"Yeah, apologies in advance for the language," said the main singer, "But it is actually us, so..."

The crowd laughed. Then the band launched into an upbeat song with some unmistakable... expletives. I was transfixed by the fact that all four of them resembled people I know, who, if they ever did form a band would make a hilarious combination.

As it was, these guys borrowed some ideas from Tim Minchin (they sang a song about a blow up doll), Axis of Awesome ('this is just the bit before the chorus, you can all ignore this...') and the Barenaked Ladies (by singing complex lyrics quickly in almost exactly the same way Steven Page does). It wasn't quite original but it had the appearance of it, and nobody on the barge seemed to mind.

"Where's Rory?" I asked at the end.

"I think he's gone off to talk to the organisers about performing," said Rich.

"He could totally do that," I said.