Ten years ago, a bunch of American musicians wondered what classic rock and heavy metal tunes would sound like if they were dressed up in hillbilly clothes. When recordings of their fiddle, mandolin and banjo infected treatments of classics such as AC-DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long and Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades reached British audiences, the result was instant.

Hayseed Dixie now spend much of their time touring the UK or Europe – for some reason, the joke doesn’t work quite as well in the States. And the joke is funny. You know these guys don’t take any of it too seriously.

Patter between songs tends to reflect the benefits of beer (the introduction to “Hells Bells” features, one of the band getting a note out of an empty bottle – “the sound of evil”, jokes the band leader), alien abduction, and a great story about meeting Take That in Norway.

The audience, mainly aged between 25 and 45, laugh cathartically at the (faintly adolescent) humour and the wild interpretations of songs.

“The songs are in four sections,” declared Hayseed Dixie’s charismatic, beer-praising band leader Barley Scotch (perhaps not his real name) on Wednesday night. These are “Drinking, Killing, Cheating and Hell”. The “Killing” section features War Pigs, by Black Sabbath and a brilliant, hell-for-leather rip-off of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Guitar solos from songs by Queen, Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin are torn out on banjo, fiddle, mandolin or acoustic guitar, but done note perfectly. Just to show they can really play, halfway through the band tear through a burst of Mozart.

At the side, a gang of women are dancing happily, and the mixture of raucous music, over-the-top humour and crowd appreciation is oddly life affirming.

You probably wouldn’t want to see Hayseed Dixie every week. But everybody should see this outrageous quartet at least once.

Review by Miles Salter