Camden Crawl
By: Thomas Hannan
Oh my f**k. Head. Hurts. Turn that down. What, nothing's playing? Well just shut up. Stop breathing so loudly.
What a marvellous evening the first night of the annual Camden Crawl, where North London's trendiest vicinity opens up twelve of its venues to bands new and old for two nights of debauched rock and roll, turned out to be.
If you were sensible, you could just about get to see everything you wanted also (apart from Amy Winehouse... people are still queuing to get in to that one... Dublin Castle?! Whose idea was that?!) - bear in mind that there are more tickets for the event than there are spaces for people inside each and every venue, so if you're going tonight and are intent on seeing one thing in particular, it's imperative you arrive very early for it, and don't mind queuing.
But there are better things to do than wait in the street for some band you've already seen to start playing some songs you already know. This is about new music, my brethren. If there's a place without a queue, head in. Something exciting might be happening. That was the situation that lead to us propping up the bar in The Earl of Camden, watching the marvellous Pavement on helium indie pop of Loney Dear in decidedly gastro surroundings. Does it get better than wondering if you want to order a posh sandwich whilst someone yelps gorgeous and deftly created melodies in your ear from the other side of a pub?
Yes. Malcolm Middleton is frankly superb, and his appearance in the NW1 bar (a place, like many others that host gigs these two evenings, in which you'd never usually see a band at all), all frighteningly strong tunes and downtrodden sentiment turned in to life affirming melody, is bettered only by our own Transgressive boys Foals turning the place in to something more akin to a house party, all of us rushing on to the stage and bashing drums, hugging strangers and dancing like loons to bastardised math-pop.
Tonight? Well, there's Billy Bragg... ah, and lots of other brilliant stuff, plus re-appearances from people we missed last night. If you must queue, do say hello to the people next to you. You never know, one of the might be us.