There was an American flag draped across the Corner Hotel stage, though it was no ordinary flag. In the top left corner, the stars which should appear had been swirled into a galaxy of tie died colour. Strips of red and white fabric were draped around it, carefully, lovingly stapled together. The edges are frayed and you can see the gaps between the stripes. It is the flag which is also emblazoned across the cover of Set – œEm Wild, Set – œEm Free, the most recent, and certainly most daring album from Akron/Family, and is an image which perfectly sums up the homespun, eclectic and vaguely wonderful brand of folk music from the hirsute New York trio.

Akron/Family are nothing if not experimental, and the same can be said about support act Fabulous Diamonds. The Melbourne duo, comprising of percussionist Nisa Venerosa and keyboardist/saxophonist Jarrod Zlatic have been pounding away for a few years now, and have carved out a nice little niche in Melbourne’s avant garde music scene.

The metronomic thud of the drumming, and the discordant keyboard mashings are reminiscent of Jon Cale era Velvet Underground, just without the nice hooks. Their set at times resembled an extended jam, verging on extended tedium, but the sonic textures they created were visceral and interesting. I was particularly struck by the final minutes of the set, which were permutations of a single keyboard chord, slowly oscillating over a pounding bass drum. They wrung the chord out like a wet dish cloth, screwing it from minor into major into something else, until there was no more sound to wring out. If not the most aesthetically pleasing thing you’ll ever hear, it was at least original, which is a quality this band has in spades.

Akron/Family are just about the hardest band to review on the planet. Over the course of almost ten years and four albums they are still just as inscrutable as when they rose to fame with the eponymous LP in 2004. Their music is indefinable, skipping genres like a stone over water, moving from folk, to reggae to raga, to ragtime, and all in the space of a few minutes. The lyrics are delivered with perfect East Coast harmonies, however their content can only be generously be described as opaque. While the brilliance of their musicianship is unquestioned, the obdurate idiosyncrasy of their music means that they are hard to pin down, and after ninety minutes with them, I still don’t know what to think.

Set opener Gravelly Mountains of the Moon (an insufferably nonsensical title) perfectly summed up the wonder and the frustration that is Akron/Family. Beginning with a glorious woodwind rush, flighting up over somnolent, burbling keyboards, the song built into a gently strumming, folk ballad. The lyrics do not mean a blessed thing, but the beauty of the three part harmonies remove any wordy considerations I might have had. The problem came about four minutes in, when we were assaulted by an extended blast of proggish metal. With the gain on the microphone, the face melting solos and clanging cymbals, it was the musical equivalent of indigestion and it left me feeling decidedly queasy. Then all of a sudden, it morphed back into a slowly chugging piano line and pretty, joyous singing. It was all very confusing.

An unnecessary spoken word section about “radiating babies” and “ancient meadows” and “your creative urge” didn’t further their cause. Neither did their aping of Animal Collective in the latter stage of the set.

Then along comes a song like Ed Is A Portal to remind you just how good this band can be. Built around a pounding drum beat and a brilliant, vaguely Eastern guitar line, with a sprightly, winsome acoustic breakdown, it is Akron/Family at its very best; wide eyed, melodic and completely natural. If only they could play that way for ninety minutes.