Acoustic Nuisance (Kevin Dolan, Dave Armstrong, Johno Deveneux, with Lisa Ferguson and Becky Armstrong), Bermuda Folk Club, Old Colony Club, Saturday, May 16.

*** Folk music. People of my age, in their mid-20s, aren't really supposed to like it.

For this generation, it's supposed to be women singing all yodely sounds and blokes bellowing out traditional old tunes. Medieval ones like "Greensleeves''.

Of course, folk music can be like this. But it can be like so many different things, too.

And the fact that there's often no thumping bass line should not deter music lovers of all ages from sampling something just a little bit different.

Bermuda Folk Club has one of the best, most intimate music venues on the Island.

The Old Colony Club, tucked away, is dark and candlelit, small enough to be cosy and big enough to generate something of a gig atmosphere.

Acoustic Nuisance, a band formed five years ago specifically to play in Bermuda, came to town for the latest folk club jam on Saturday.

The US-based outfit includes three British musicians and an American.

They're normally a four-piece band, based mainly on string instruments -- guitars, banjos and bouzoukis (a mandolin with a long neck).

This time out they played with three of their mainstays. Two wives chipped in as occasional vocalists and guitarists.

And the band generated a full folky feel without any of the "Greensleeves'' misconceptions and a bit of pop and folk-rock to boot.

Their encore track was a surprise cover version of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes'', a hit from his mid-1980s album "So''.

And Acoustic Nuisance's entire set had the audience leading one way and another -- different sounds, different styles and different grooves.

Songs with haunting harmonica. Songs with wild clarinet solos. Others based on full guitar sounds or banjo.

It was a mixture of original material and old standards.

But the underlying feel was a sense of fun. It was often several minutes between songs, the band getting involved in impromptu chat with the audience, tuning up or just teasing each other.

They clearly loved what they were doing. The 100-strong audience was loving it too.

But their willingness to get the audience involved, trying to encourage the crowds to join choruses, belied their real feelings just a little.

They were nervous. Guitarist and singer Kevin Dolan, an Englishman who lived in Bermuda in the 1970s, revealed this to me moments before he took the stage.

"I always get stagefright,'' he said. "But particularly here in Bermuda.'' You sensed the Bermuda Folk Club was a special place for him to play. It's also a special place to see live music.

NEIL ROBERTS