On 23rd October 2007 at 14:39 Anonymous 6602 wrote...
This is quite a biased review being there myself and from leeds I found the night an amazingly enjoyable gig maybe its more suited to the teenagers everyone was dancing!
Los Campesinos!
Live at Cockpit on Friday, 19th October 2007
As those of you out there who are musical types will know, the wonderful world of MySpace allows you the excellent facility to advertise your wares via the listing of "upcoming gigs", marvellous! This charming and helpful little feature knows that most of these musical extravaganzas take place at approximately 8pm in the evening and therefore by default sets the start time of said event to 8pm... amazing hey? Not so clever is not actually changing that time to the time you will actually be on is it ... Sky Larkin? So as your humble reviewer bounds in to the venue ready to witness the excellent Miss Larkin and team continue their erstwhile climb up the musical ladder, smugly noting that his watch reads precisely 8pm and thinking "I probably even have time for a pint", imagine the horror that he experiences when realising that the "billed to start at 8pm" Sky Larkin are not setting up but are actually packing away!!! What the fu-lipppin heck? So you only have yourselves to blame in the future if you bill your start time inaccurately and then expect a review from a simple reviewer not equipped with psychic powers.
So instead it is onto You Say Party! We Say Die! who start the ball rolling with the "high-school of rock theme" that forms the shape of tonight. Lead singer Becky Ninkovic looks like the "real trendy" deal in her 80's bat wing shimmering gold cardigan. Too young to remember how stupid people looked dressed like that the first time round, she looks like a combination between the girl from Flash Dance and Kate Bush, either that or someone who has just finished a marathon. She is flanked by Ugly Betty on keyboards that sound like an Elephant being squeezed. For the first half of the set, the cardigan is the most interesting thing on stage as the band plod rather than disco their way through a very "current" sounding take on Blondie and post-punk... the hi-hat thrashing meets staccato guitar meets synth bass thing... like a check list of things required before NME approval. The band do warm up when they start to shake off the manacles of fashion and just have a good old thrash around with some earlier material. Guitarist Derek Adam who has a Bill and Ted "Duuude" accent takes every opportunity to back slap Sky Larkin and gain favour from the local crowd. "Those guys are the best man" he says, or something colonial like that. The set ends on high spirits but there is little inspiration to pursue the band beyond this.
Los Campesinos! are like the NME casting a version of Grease and getting Arcade Fire to write the music. Having done so they have then fed the cast enough sugary cakes, sweets and pop to ensure the performance is sped up in to a hi-pitch whir. Gareth Campesinos! (That's how they write all their surnames... their dead funky like that you know) has a singing delivery that looks like he needs a wee so much he is prepared to tear out his own hair. It's a style that never grows on you in fact it surprisingly just gets more grating as he intersperses it with fey comments to the crowd about how the band are so appreciative to be so loved such a short time after all finishing University... blah blah blah... puke. Musically the band do warm up and certainly judging by the large girl to the left screaming down this lughole there are some people appreciating the show. But ultimately it's all too clean, too polite, too mum and dad, too matey and too end of school show. The band welcome back on to stage the entire "cast" for the night, and cast is the right word. It looks like an Indie version of the bit at the end of Grease where everyone sings "We go together like ram-a-lama-lama di ding-ity ding-a-dong" and that my friends is no fun...it's just smarmy and when you add dance moves to it... which they do, it is time to beat a hasty retreat to the exit. Perhaps on a night when the audience was a 14+ crowd it was forgivable, but as Gareth Ineedaweenos! states that local hero Ricky from the Kaiser Chiefs was once "Weally weally wude to me" you can't help but think... yep good on him!
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On 23rd October 2007 at 16:38 Anonymous 30 wrote...
Not where I was standing they weren't...in fact there was a disctinct lack of movement.
On 24th October 2007 at 16:16 Anonymous 6845 wrote...
I thought it was a good show. Deffo recommend Los Campesinos to all
On 29th October 2007 at 14:55 thirties wrote...
There was plenty of movement where I was; so much so that my specs got clunked off my head and ground into the floor by a dozen pairs of Converse. And you know what? I didn't even care. What a great night!