If ever an act needed to be seen live to be appreciated for all they have to offer, that’d be Langhorne Slim, who treats every stage like a pulpit and leaves every attendee feeling born again and enlightened. That’s not to say the Pennsylvania-born, New York-based singer-songwriter can’t miss in his recordings, as his first half dozen releases between 2004 and 2012 contain as many unintentionally funny clunkers as gems, especially when he was trying to be Mr. Sensitive Guitar Guy. That’s okay, one wouldn’t expect a struggling alt-country folk-rock aspirant in his early 20s to have much earth-shaking insight to offer, musically or lyrically.

But around the time of Langhorne Slim’s 2008 self-titled full-length, he began hitting ‘em out of the park with numbers like “She’s Gone,” a bitter lament of how “there’s just so many people with unwanted filthy demands, after you left I called my friends up alone, but at least I’m not your man.” He’s had his stuff in movies and TV shows, and “Put it Together” was heard in commercials for Coke, but it’s his constant presence on the road, backing up an encyclopedic list of headliners, which has earned the devotional following sure to show up at the Belly Up.