Image by Natasha Ryan
Los Campesinos! create indie-pop chaos in Brooklyn
May 15, 2008, at Music Hall of Williamsburg
By Laura Leebove
Published: May 18th, 2008 | 12:35pm
If only one band was to be awarded the privilege of adding an exclamation point to the end of its name, my vote goes to Los Campesinos! The high-energy septet from Wales brought their indie-pop dance party to Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg in a string of New York–area gigs, but even with other shows lined up in the same week, they nearly filled the venue.
With hardly enough room for everyone onstage, the band members' screeching of “One TWO three FOUR, one TWO three FOUR!” signaled the start of “Broken Heartbeats Sound like Breakbeats.” Singer and glockenspiel extraordinaire Gareth (all go by the surname Campesinos!) spastically whipped around the stage, sharing his mic with guitarists Tom and Neil and at one point he dropped to his knees to play the glock with one hand.
Los Campesinos! plowed through Hold On Now, Youngster … (Arts & Crafts), their debut LP that is undoubtedly one of the year's best. Because the band — formed only in 2006 — lacks a huge back catalog, their set of 14 songs and a modest one-song encore was short but sweet and consisted of Youngster's 11 tracks and smatterings from their two EPs. Many of LC!'s songs use one of two formulas: Start easy, build a cacophonous wall of noise, and end abruptly; or start fast, move to chaos, get even louder, and then calm down.
Some might see the songs as being musically repetitive, but the clever lyrics and wacky song names will never get old. With titles like “This Is How You Spell ‘HAHAHA We Destroyed the Hopes and the Dreams of a Generation of Faux Romantic’” and “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives,” the young musicians sang and shouted about writing letters, breaking up, and having fun — all peppered with pop culture references and punctuation metaphors.
As expected, the climax came with Los Campesinos!'s biggest hit, “You! Me! Dancing!,” which put fans in a frenzy and raised the energy level for the remainder of the set. While artists traditionally save their best-known track for the end, the spark in the crowd's energy suggested it might have been smarter to place it earlier in the night.
In tracks like “The International Tweexcore Underground” and “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks,” it was nearly impossible to keep track of what each musician was doing, whether it be standing on a stool and encouraging the crowd to clap (Ollie), playing a violin (Harriet), or blowing into a melody horn (Aleksandra). But with all the chaos onstage, Los Campesinos! were all smiles and played like their lives depended on it. After all, it's their party and they'll make noise if they want to.
Issue #13
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