Live: Los Campesinos! @ Academy 3
Los Campesinos!
Academy 3
26th March
3 Stars
I’m definitely in two minds about Los Campesinos! On the one hand they’re just plain not my cup of tea – their quaint vocal melodies and their insistence on using xylophones really grates with me. On the other hand though, their songs are catchy and the words aren’t half bad, and it turns out their live performance is pretty impressive as well.
It’s not that the members of Los Campesinos! are especially good musicians – individually they’re pretty bog standard really. What impressed me was their group performance – with all the band members shuffling between various instruments throughout the show (first a synth, next a tambourine, periodically someone would be holding a flute) I had expected everything to sound a bit of a mess, but they put on a tight performance all things considered.
The crowd were pretty decent as well. I’d heard beforehand that this is one of those bands who have a fanatical horde of fans following them round the country in droves, and looking about the place there did seem to be plenty of gushing 15-year-olds who clearly knew literally all the words to all of their songs. You might think that sort of thing would be annoying, and I’d be inclined to agree with you except that everyone was also pretty keen on having a bit of a dance as well – in the end I joined in and basically bounced around with everyone else for the closing half of the show.
The only negative point I really have to hold against these guys is that their set would’ve benefited from a bit more back-and-forth with the crowd between songs – with seven people on stage you’d think they’d have plenty to chat about. Gareth made a few witty quips, and he earned a few Brownie points when he asked about the football score somewhere in the middle of the show, but honestly I could’ve done with a bit more…
I make this complaint about bands all the time, but it really can be the difference between having a great night and just having a mediocre one.
(Fans of NoFX will probably understand what I’m getting at here: They often get the chords wrong when they’re playing, and Fat Mike frequently forgets the words to their songs even though presumably he’s the one who wrote them in the first place, but none of that prevents them from being one of the best live bands there are, and that is because their performance involves a lot more than just playing songs. I mean just look at them!)
Maybe I’m splitting hairs though. At the end of the day the show was fun, and the band seemed like a good bunch of guys. If you’re a fan of twee pop music I’d recommend checking this lot out some time, but the night wasn’t exactly life changing.