los campesinos! / sky larkin / nosferatud2

A wiry guy called Adam sat behind an improbably large kit, he is energetic, focussed and perspiring heavily. His companion in the wonderfully named NosferatuD2 is his singer guitarist brother Ben, who rather lets the side down by being just the latest in a seemingly never ending line of angsty young men who are keen to impress us with their sensitive side. This may be attractive to young women, but only makes me mutter and fidget. If the previous band is cleverly named, then the members of the next must have had a collective off day when they decided to call themselves Sky Larkin. It conjures up visions of bucolic folksiness, but in reality the band are a tight, female fronted three piece who make all the right moves, but are perhaps ultimately let down by rather slight material. Singer Katie is the one to watch, her voice and guitar thrumming with urgency. When she switches to a keyboard the ensuing fairground noises put the band dangerously close to Fiery Furnaces territory. Sky Larkin are so close to being very good that their falling short irks more than it should. They are just one killer song away. The room is now heaving with hairy young men and dainty young girls for the triumphant arrival of Los Campesinos!, a seven piece explosion of a band from Cardiff. Although much of what they do initially sounds like throw-it-all-up-in-the-air- see–where-it-lands chaos, they are just so gosh golly delighted to be here and playing to an adoring audience that their enthusiasm brooks all criticism. The band are led by the beaming Gareth, a man so self-effacing and charming that he is not so much a frontman as a six foot Andrex puppy. He beats the living tar out of a glockenspiel during recent single “We throw parties, you throw knives” and the crowd bounce about on a sea of euphoria. This is classic music for indie dancing – too complex and fiddly for listening to at home, in the live environment it all makes glorious sense as a soundtrack for leaping and lurching. Balloons shower down, members of the support bands clamber into the throng on stage, grabbing any space and instrument they can as the whole set whirls and spins towards a final, anthemic run through “You Me Dancing”, as apt a title as ever there was. By the end of the show everyone in the room is tangled in a happy, beaming heap. Los Campesinos! are great fun, in a wholly harmless and playful way. Suitable for ages five and up.