"Come one, come all! The show is strange and the show is rare. There's nothing like it in all the world! See it now before it's gone!" These words could well be barked outside of a Streets show where the man in the top hat, aka Michael Geoffrey Skinner, stands in the center of his one man show. With a Birmingham accent he leads the audience through a performance of opinion and attitude that could only be born from the mind of a bored suburban youth with a fascination for the strange.

In this case the strange is electronic garage music with a hearty dose of hip-hop that has discerning listeners and jaded critics standing up with applause. Beginning with the first album Original Pirate Material, and continuing with each subsequent act, the center ring has gotten quite crowded with both quality and quantity - a problem that many artists can only wish they had.

The Streets music is a circus of conflicting anger and despair with a couple of clowns thrown in for good measure. In each of the songs one can find a moment of humor to lighten the mood, with a political sensibility and later a retrospective hindsight that shows Skinner's maturity and experience. One would do best to enjoy this act while it lasts since Skinner has stated the 2010 album by The Streets will be the last. Lets hope the show goes on, even if in a different incarnation. CHAD MITCHELL