Date:

Sun, 2008/04/20

Venue:

Camden Town

Lewis navigates all the gothic dope-peddling noodle sellers to bring us this report on Acoustic Ladyland, Official Secrets Act and Future Of the Left!

Saturday evening began with a case of deja-vu involving queuing round the block to watch Los Campesinos!, albeit at the other end of town from their chaotic headline set at The Enterprise on Friday. A packed Koko enthusiastically welcomed the seven piece from Cardiff along with their assortment of instruments including a violin, xylophone and a £55 (discontinued) keyboard from Argos - which may have played its last gig, but went out in glorious style.

they left one half of the crowd rapturous - and the others cowering in the corner of the venue...

Reflecting the single-heavy nature of debut album ’Hold On Now Youngster’ the set whizzed from one hit to another, the early highlight being the startlingly discordant finale to ’Drop It Doe Eyes’. An extended intro to ’You! Me! Dancing!’ saw the crowd lose their early evening inhibitions and go ballistic when the chirpy chords kicked in. Just around the corner from Koko, Artrocker was playing host to an impressive line-up at The Purple Turtle. Mighty Boosh-spotters will be pleased to know that although Messrs Barrett and Fielding were conspicuous by their absence, Rich Fulcher (AKA Bob Fossil) was gleefully posing for photos left, right and centre. OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT opened up the night, boasting ridiculously catchy nuggets like ’Girl From The BBC’. While the Bullet Bar was hosting fellow Artrocker favourites We Are The Physics, its epic distance up Kentish Town Road ensured that OSA packed out The Purple Turtle, their eloquent new-wave sounds setting the stage nicely for The Answering Machine. Generic down to their haircuts, skinny ties and scuffed trainers, THE ANSWERING MACHINE may seem very familiar but they have the tunes to back it up - the likes of ’Lightbulbs’ and ’Oh Christina’ proving to be hits with an increasingly enthusiastic audience. The Stables Market seemed to be a popular next destination for food-seeking revellers, including Los Campesinos! singer Gareth, who informed me that their previous night’s gig had seen band members being momentarily turned away by bouncers, ending with a police-enforced cancellation after just three songs. Stables also boasted close proximity to several venues hosting buzz acts of the weekend - Ida Maria at Dingwalls, Wild Beasts at The Cuban Bar and the difficult-to-pronounce-after-beers Slagsmalsklubben at Barfly. Domino’s WILD BEASTS failed to inspire the crowd at The Cuban Bar, as their singer’s bombastic vocals completely overpowered his band‘s featherweight indie. One dissenter compared his style to “a cross between Mika and that guy from Sparks”, confirming my suspicion that their chances of survival depend on the publics response to what is undeniably a unique vocal weapon. No such problems hampered FUTURE OF THE LEFT, whose skull-splitting, bilious riffs were taking out anyone within 200 feet of Bar Monsta. While Crystal Castles’ warped electronica was drawing a large crowd to the Lock, I decided to head to the unassuming Camden Tup for a fitting send-off from Artrocker’s favourite punk-jazz mentalists ACOUSTIC LADYLAND. Mixing new sax-led noise odysseys with familiar vocal tracks such as ’Skinny Grin’, they left one half of the crowd rapturous - and the others cowering in the corner of the venue, feeling as though a colossal hangover had already taken hold. It was a polarising and incendiary performance. CRAWL OVER TO PART ONE

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ACOUSTIC LADYLAND Reviews

CAMDEN CRAWL DIARY - PART TWO