10.24.08
It’s not for the cock, it’s for shredding your face
Shred Your Face at Camden Electric Ballroom, London 20 October
It’s a rainy Monday night and the self styled “Shred Your Face” tour rolls into Camden town for what is surely the biggest gig of the jaunt.
First on to an already pretty packed venue is Times New Viking who impress those who made the effort to come early. The band seem to take a particular perverse joy in creating glorious pop songs almost of the Belle and Sebastian variety and then smothering them with walls of feedback, splashy cymbals and fuzzed out vocals so that the listener has to almost decipher those gorgeous melodies.
This size of venue is clearly not the ideal place to see Times New Viking, who should be seen up close and personal in some flea infested sweat pit, but they pull off a pretty raucous and rousing set anyway.
After a short wait, two unassuming Americans shuffle onstage and begin their set. No Age, it could be said, are a major draw for many tonight but, unfortunately, they fail to live up to expectations. Their lacklustre performance and almost sloppy sound would probably be great in a smaller venue but, again, they are just not the right band to be playing to such a big crowd. “Eraser” provides a slight slither of respite but the general feeling as they live the stage seems to be of quiet disappointment more than anything else.
Eventually it’s time for the headline band of this Shred Your Face malarkey, Los Campesinos!, to take the stage. As the band themselves testify, this is the biggest indoors gig they’ve ever played but they actually benefit from the large stage space and manage to step up their performance to the bigger crowd.
The band begin with latest album opener “Make It Through The Wall” which instantly gets the crowd bouncing with it’s choppy rhythms which eventually give way to a glorious chorus. After this, the set is divided almost equally between the bands two albums, although songs from their debut “Hold on Now, Youngster” undoubtedly get the bigger, more wildly enthusiastic response. Songs such as “Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)”, “You! Me! Dancing!” and “Death to Los Campesinos!” already sound like classics and are matched word for word by the sweating, joyous crowd.
“This is How You Spell..” is, perhaps, one of the highlights of the set. With it’s slow build up of eerie keys and rumbling bass which eventually mingle with the heart soaring violin, it provides the perfect canvas for singer Gareth’s emotional and enthusiastic performance. The band, as usual, end with “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks” which is as captivating and brilliant as ever- Gareth making his way into the dancing crowd before finishing on top of a speaker to give the final delivery.
With that, the Shred Your Face gig is over. Three very different bands, ranging from the minimalist to the perfected pop, yet there was unfortunately something lacking slightly in the whole affair. Maybe it was the venue or maybe it was hyped up too much, but Shred Your Face wasn’t quite the triumph it could, and should, have been.
http://www.myspace.com/loscampesinos
Death to Los Campesinos! (live)
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
http://www.myspace.com/nonoage