OKKERVIL RIVER @ THE BORDERLINE 20/05/08

OKKERVIL RIVER

I had only heard a little of Okkervil River before this show. I had heard Sleep and Wake-Up Songs, Our Life is Not a Movie from The Stage Names and their Daytrotter session, and it was the latter that most appealed to me. This dampened my excitement for the gig though as I knew that the majority of the set would be a full band affair rather than the simple, emotive acoustic songs from that session. Opening with The President's Dead with frontman Will Sheff alone onstage with just his voice and acoustic guitar. Despite inevitably bursting into full band before the end of the song, I was still suddenly very optimistic again.

This soon died down again though and, although they were still entertaining I found that my mind was often found elsewhere. This ended the second that Sheff began playing A Stone. Surely one of the most beautiful songs ever written, they held back having the band intrude upon it until later than in the recorded version, exploding and fading at the perfect junctures to allow the solemn denouement the strongest possible resonance. A truly stunning moment that left my eyes wide and my mouth ajar.

From here it was plain sailing. I couldn't be more alert to the intricacies of the band and their abilities to make their perfect mix of indie and americana. The double blow of Our Life is Not a Movie and Unless it's Kicks to end the set was perfect and then opening the encore with Red was, yet again, supreme. Ending with Westfall and encouraging the crowd to sing the line 'evil don’t look like anything' along with the band, there are very few shows that singing along to a song about murder can still have you leaving with a smile, but this is one. A gig of two halves you might say, but I feel that the first half was more me not being in the mindset than the band not being at their best.

http://www.myspace.com/okkervilriver

ALL TIME LOW/ MID TIME LOW/ SET YOUR GOALS/ THE MOVIELIFE @ KINGSTON PEEL 15/05/08

I feel bad for anyone that wasn’t at this gig. Either you have terrible luck and couldn’t get a ticket, or else you have awful taste. Set Your Goals playing The Peel is a guaranteed sell out but add to that All Time Low being added to the bill at the last minute due to an off day during their tour and then finish it off with Vinnie Caruana doing a Movielife set with Set Your Goals as his backing band and you would be a cleft to miss it.

ALL TIME LOW

All Time Low open proceedings with a fine five song set. The band play fun, sugary pop punk that can cause no real offence, and although it is predictable it is in a familiar rather than tedious way. While I’m not impressed enough by them to head to any of their headline shows, their set flies by and, come set closer Dear Maria, Count Me In, I’m singing along with the rest of the crowd. They make a perfect start to the evening and I’ll be sure to listen to their album and ep again after this.

http://www.myspace.com/alltimelow

MID TIME LOW

The internet really ruins surprises and anyone who had been looking through websites like Punktastic in the days leading up to the gig would have heard rumours of All Time Low being joined onstage by Gabe Saporta, front man of Cobra Starship and formerly of Midtown, during the two bands’ tour and playing a Midtown song. Now the internet took this and ran, with claims of a six song set being touted around. As it turned out we were treated to just that one song, Become What You Hate, but it was lapped up. It was good and, although you could tell that it wasn’t Midtown, it just added to the special atmosphere around the night.

http://www.midtownrock.com/

SET YOUR GOALS

As much as I like Set Your Goals on record when playing live they sit on the wrong side of shambolic for me. They look awkward, sound muddled and, although the crowd seem pretty into it, to anyone who doesn’t know the album there is little to enjoy. Inevitably I will give them more chances in the future but tonight I left for the toilet before they had finished set closer, Mutiny!.

http://www.myspace.com/setyourgoals

THE MOVIELIFE

Vinnie made sure to reiterate thoroughly that this wasn’t The Movielife and that they would never play live again, but I would dare any one of the people who didn’t attend this gig because of that sentiment to have stood, with their eyes closed, during this show and tell me that this wasn’t them. They surely would have been humbled by quite how close this really was. To me This Time Next Year is one of the best pop punk albums ever and being able to the see the likes of Pinky Swear, Once In A Row and of course This Time Next Year live was something that I never expected and fuck me was it amazing. I never get involved at the front at shows anymore but, by the time that Jamestown was bringing an end to the set I had sweated through my jeans I was so into it. It was rammed and, bar a few morons, it was such a positive show; people acknowledging that they were involved in something special. On the train home we attempted to express our joy but failed, and I’m still struggling now. I can only thank Banquet for making me so giddy with excitement on a night of pure nostalgic brilliance.

http://www.myspace.com/themovielife

BACKSTREET BOYS @ O2 ARENA 14/05/08

BACKSTREET BOYS

Girls love to scream. Their shrill fucking screams destroy the hell out of my ear drums and threaten to ruin the majority of the Backstreet Boys' two hour set. Nothing could really lessen quite how brilliant tonight is though, for I am a pop-monger at heart. I have never been a fan of experimental music or instrumental bands as, no matter how exquisitely composed, they never grab me for I want a hook. After fifteen years of producing hit albums, the Backstreet Boys have an arsenal of hits that they can unleash whenever they want, and they really do control the set list expertly tonight.

It is 8:35pm, five minutes after showtime. The crowd are entertaining themselves with Mexican waves while I am cringing. I'm about to get used to cringing. The lights suddenly cut the latest wave in half and the shrill screams reverberate around the arena. On stage is a boxing ring. The screens light up and we are introduced to each member individually, dressed like boxers and with their boxing stats beside them. It looks like sports television and is extremely exciting. They each end up in the ring, the curtain drops and they launch into Larger Than Life. Tonight just got brilliant. From here they tend to play three or four songs from the latest album and then a hit. They then take it in turns in between songs to play solo songs, one each. Howie's is pretty poor Latin effort, Nick sounds like a child making terrible 'rock' music, AJ runs around like the BSBs' version of Robbie Williams and then Brian sings a pretty good Christian song. The highlight amongst this is when they play my favourite, Show Me the Meaning Of Being Lonely, and are all sat around a table in suits (bar AJ who refuses to ever dress up for the occasion) pretending to play poker while soft lighting falls on their blemish less skin. But ultimately the first half of the set is dominated by new material and no one really cares for that, they came for the hits (and to scream seemingly).

After around an hour the best thing happens. A medley of hits consisting of: Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)/ As Long As You Love Me/ All I Have To Give/ I'll Never Break Your Heart. When the medley ends I am considering screaming too. And from here on in there are four songs and only one of them is off the new album. It is incredible. Ending with the inevitable Everybody (Backstreet's Back) there are fireworks and all kinds of crazy brilliance. And then the one song encore, Shape Of My Heart, and it is over. Tonight was cheesy (randomly throwing in Stronger by Kanye in the middle of Larger Than Life, breaking into Beat It by Michael Jackson when introducing the band, and throwing Walk This Way into the middle of Everybody and doing the dance while linking arms really only add to this already mature cheddar), but it was also bloody brilliant. When bands/groups play venues of this size and don't bother with a stage show I think that it is greedy. So often this year I have seen bands in large venues but still half this size and they have offered nothing to look at or remember. Fireworks, boxing rings and pretend poker games, I want it that way.

http://www.myspace.com/backstreetboys

ARMOR FOR SLEEP/ FINCH @ SCALA 13/05/08

ARMOR FOR SLEEP

I never liked Dream To Make Believe and haven't really given the latest album a chance, but What To Do When You're Dead is one of my favourite pop-punk albums. Armor For Sleep seem to have a slight darkness to even their most upbeat songs and this makes them sound far more interesting than they actually are. Live they just don't cut it though, and even the songs from WTDWYD sound dull after a few seconds. Musically they seem to be entertaining enough for the most part but it's vocally where they are really let down as Ben Jorgensen (lead vocals) has no one backing him up to add any emphasis to the choruses, or any part of any song for that matter.

Tonight they give it a lot but do not come off that great. Having not listened to the new album and not seen the band live since they toured WTDWYD I cannot be sure if it's the songs that are failing or just that the band are tired, but they were entirely forgettable regardless.

http://www.myspace.com/armorforsleep

FINCH

Finch are back! The review could end there and I think people would understand and then lose themselves in a torrent of giggles. When I last saw Finch they were playing the Astoria touring Say Hello To Sunshine and it was a chore watching them. The passion that I had heard people mentioning in reference to their gigs was non-apparent and they seemed to be even struggling to go through the motions. Tonight they were as people had described previously.

Drawing perfectly from both albums so as not to alienate the fans of either, they managed to race through the set as though their hiatus had been spent drinking battery acid. Playing Letters To You as their third song was a surprising and potentially risky move but, safe in the knowledge that they were playing to die hard fans and they still had What It Is To Burn on the horizon, the move was a perfect way to get people involved from the off and the crowd didn't need much encouragement. Additionally, the new songs, scheduled for a 15th July release, seem to be more like SHTS musically but vocally more reminiscent of WIITB and so sit seamlessly in the set.

The only downfall was the drummer not sitting comfortable with the WIITB songs, but this can be forgiven after a show of such fulfilled anticipation. I have waited a long time to see this band perform like this and so the abundance of smiles from myself, my friends and my mum when we left the venue left me feeling that the only thing better than Finch taking the hiatus when they did was them returning with such vigour.

http://www.myspace.com/finchmusic

GIVE IT A NAME @ EARLS COURT 10/05/08

I bought a ticket off a tout for this outside the venue. I'm only really a fan of a few of the bands playing and I'm certainly not an advocate for any show being held at Earls Court but, knowing that the event was so remarkably undersold that prices outside would be far cheaper than face value, I figured that I had nothing to lose. However, when I left, eight hours later and before the event finished, I was at a point where I had finally decided to cut those losses that I had previously thought impossible. The sound inside the venue was never going to be great what with it being in a room the size of an airport terminal and with it being a 'festival' the sound checks were never going to be thorough, but I didn't foresee the entire day sounding as though I were listening to the bands through a seashell. Add to that the £3.70 price tag on the only lager available (Carlsberg at 3.8%) I was never likely to get drunk enough to excuse the sound and awful atmopshere of a barely two-thirds filled arena. None of this was the bands' faults though and so I begrudgingly forgave them and write this review with all of the above put to the side.

First up were BROADWAY CALLS. I walked in a song into their set and I had heard good things about them. The crowd was extremely sparse at this point but the band seemed pretty entertaining and I think that I'd have enjoyed their set a whole lot more in a smaller venue. Probably a lot of fun and I wish that they were on the Give It A Name Introduces tour so that I might get the chance to see them again on a slightly more intimate occasion.

MEG & DIA do very little for me. They sound competent but have nothing on offer to make me want to stand up and take note. Instead I kept seated and the same could apply for MAYDAY PARADE. A slightly more interesting proposition, and one that I was looking forward to checking out, but they did little to impress me. As the day went on though I realised that few would have that potential.

CHIODOS, despite being a band that I am never going to be a fan of, managed to hold my attention and, through their heavy riffs, and at one point a whole wave of base, they stood out from the crowd. MC LARS, although very different, could be lumped into the same principle. A 'rapper', with Failsafe as a backing band, was always going to stand out despite the vast majority of his fan base being pop-punk kids. I'm not a big fan but, from what I saw of him, he was probably one of the better performers of the day.

The same cannot be said of COBRA STARSHIP. I was never a massive Midtown fan and so, seeing how bad Cobra Starship are, I cannot imagine how hard it is seeing Gabe waste his time in such a mediocre band, awash with neon hoodies and lacking in hooks. SET YOUR GOALS have hooks and the songs to get the crowd moving for the first time in the day, but the sound is definitely against them. It sounds as though they are playing far off in the distance and so, what would have been a very solid performance from them, leaves me a fair bit cold.

ALL TIME LOW are some way off Hit The Lights and Valencia in the 'great pop-punk bands coming through stakes' in my eyes, despite having rustled up a larger fan base than those two bands already. Today their slick, catchy pop is a welcome break and, despite being on the smaller state, the crowd seem to get into it too.

And so to the first of the two main reasons that I had made this trek to West London today, FINCH. Despite already being in possession of a ticket for their headline show in three days time, I couldn't wait after their hiatus to see how they were going to return. I was not prepared for quite how impressive they would be. The sound seemed to be slightly remedied and they managed to sound big, the vocals soaring and the guitars crisp. A seven song set and only a half an hour set was the only downside but it was the perfect appetiser for their headline show.

My second reason was ALKALINE TRIO. The band are one of my favourite in their genre, dark and with distinctive vocals, they have always stood out from the crowd for me. Tonight they seemed as though they really couldn't be bothered, which is somewhat weird as they are only in the UK for these two shows. Ending with She Took Him To The Lake was a strange end to the set and a strange end to my Give It A Name. My first experience of the event and, unless they change venues and get a line-up more akin to last years, I almost certainly will not be back.

LADYFEST LONDON 2008 @ THE UNDERWORLD 09/05/08

Inside the Underworld today there must have been at least three ladies to every man. Never before have I been to a show with such a heavy ratio in that respect (although that might change when I go to see Backstreet Boys next week). Ladyfest is an arts festival that first started in Olympia, Washington in 2000 and has since been seen worldwide. Its sole intention is to raise awareness of women in art, as well as run workshops on issues surrounding women within the industry. With that in mind it really isn’t surprising to see so many women present, but it is nice to see guys here too. Being alone here as a single male is a little daunting though, but, in a way, equally comforting; the atmosphere seems far more tranquil but I hadn’t realised how frightening a large group of girls assembled in one place, especially those with punk beliefs, can be. Soon there is music though to allow me time to forget.

THE BOBBY MCGEES

Sitting on the floor at the Underworld is normally an awful idea but it seems perfectly fitting for this two-piece. First song in and, once you get past Jimmy’s thick Scottish accent, you become immersed in their mixture of heartfelt, offbeat, comedic songs that say things about life but keep these insights to the subtext. The between song banter is very similar and you get the feeling that, illustrated well with Jimmy being a big bloke with glitter in his beard and strumming a ukulele, that they’re a band that tend not to take themselves too seriously, but the enjoyment factor is there for them and the assembled crowd.

Going back to that first song though, which was my favourite personally, and it saddens me, now that I’m listening to their MySpace, that I cannot find it online. Written entirely upon a backdrop of Star Wars characters, they manage to build a really quite touching premise of this underdog character who, as the lead lyric repeats throughout the song, ‘Don’t want to be Jar Jar Binks anymore.’ I can’t imagine them becoming Han Solo anytime soon, but they might manage R2-D2.

www.myspace.com/thebobbymcgees

MONDAY CLUB

Monday Club do not suit sitting on the floor for. Sitting somewhat strangely on a bill consisting entirely of acoustic loveliness come this balls-out (minding the obvious irony of such a statement) rock ‘n’ roll band that have electric guitars and try their best to blow the crowd away. Ultimately this is pretty hard for a band that sticks out like a sore thumb on this bill to do to a seated audience, but it’s not the arses being on the floor or the band being on an inappropriate bill that is the problem as much as the band just not being very interesting. As a three piece straight out rock band you need a guitarist that can really play, mixing solid riffs in the verses and then being able to unleash a solo on cue, but you do not get that from Astrud (guitar and lead vocals). Instead the band seems to struggle awkwardly through their set with nothing of note sticking out.

Somehow managing to stand out for the rest initially and then become instantly forgettable by the end of their first song is the only achievement that I saw from this band.

http://www.myspace.com/mondayclubband

SLOW CLUB

I imagine that no one reads my reviews of this band anymore. This is the sixth time that I’ve seen them and guess what? Probably better than any other so far and so you can imagine how much I want to just draw a big heart here and leave it at that. They are a band that make music that people disliking would baffle me. It is inoffensive but not dull. It is simple without ever seeming basic. It is one of those rare occasions where I can find no faults or pointers in anything they do, new songs sound just as promising as old ones and their set list can feature, or not feature for that matter, any of their songs and I’ll still walk away content.

I once loved a girl. She could do no wrong. She had lovely blonde hair and then one day dyed it brown. She told me this over the phone and my stomach tightened but when I saw her she was just as pretty. She would speak solidly for fifteen minutes without me even being able to acknowledge her sentences and yet I’d listen. I’d spend all day thinking of how to make her happy. I would write stories about sea creatures and she would illustrate them. We made each whole and she could make my day just by existing. One night at a party she broke up with me. I went back to our hotel room and cried solidly. I eventually fell asleep and woke up with pillows wet from tears and sweat. In the morning I watched Wimbledon highlights on the television and had a shower then took her stuff back to her. She didn’t come out so I left it in the front garden behind a bin. And then I went home. I cried a lot but always in private as it was my sister’s birthday and I didn’t want to ruin it. I got over it quickly but it still hurts from time to time. I miss those days and nostalgia is not my friend.

Slow Club seem able to capture the emotions of the entire above paragraph, the utter contentment of Me and You will go directly into the agony of loss in Apples and Pairs and your heart will be a flutter with all kinds of feelings that you only get from knowing someone truly special. Get to know Slow Club; I couldn’t be happier that I did.

www.myspace.com/slowclub

KIMYA DAWSON

There couldn’t be a more appropriate artist to appear at Ladyfest. To me she encapsulates everything that is feminine in this world, she knows what she wants from life but always makes sure that she gives just as much back. Her songs are full of honesty, simple truths told by someone who seems to love manipulating words to make them sound as wonderful as their meanings are purposeful. With the success of her work on the soundtrack to Juno it is hardly surprising to see a packed room for this cult character, the kind of person who sits behind her merch stall throughout the day and who is happy to just soak up everyone and everything, whilst being open enough to explain her inadequacies. She seems to have gotten to a point in her life where she is accepting of herself and her place in the world and being in someone’s company like that is worthy of the admission fee alone.

Why am I talking so much about Kimya’s personality instead of the music? Well while her guitar playing is lovely and her cracked, sweet vocal both manage to do her incredible song writing justice, it is the atmosphere that she musters that makes the gig quite wonderful. When people complain about there not being enough floor space due to people sitting down she invites a whole bunch to join her and sit on stage. When she plays songs from her forthcoming child’s album, Alphabutt, she gets the crowd to suggest animals that didn’t feature in the song and even make the odd animal noise. A lovely performance from a person so rich of heart that it seems like an almost religious experience.

www.myspace.com/kimyadawson

LAURA FRANCES/ MOMERATHS @ THE BOURNE AND HOLLINGSWORTH 08/05/08

LAURA FRANCES

It is fucking hot tonight and so spending the evening in a basement bar no bigger than my bedroom with around thirty people whilst sweating profusely wouldn’t be my first choice of activities. If it weren’t for the live music then I wouldn’t be here, and so it surprises me when people are downstairs talking the whole way through Laura’s set. It’s just rude, she can see you doing it and for me it ruins her performance. Too often tonight she is forceful with her vocals, trying desperately to silence the huddle but, in doing so, not singing with the comfortable grace that left me throwing compliments her way a couple of weeks back.

Laura knows nine chords apparently. I was wrong last time but not one of them can make enough noise to drown out the crowd and tonight she doesn’t appear happy on stage. I don’t wish to write a bad review for Laura as the crowd being as unreceptive as they were was in no way her fault, but tonight wasn’t her best night.

http://www.myspace.com/laurafrancesmusic

MOMERATHS

Momeraths are a revelation. They sound like Sunday barbeque music, the kind that your little nephew and gran would both love. Paulo on vocals sounds like a young Morrissey and could easily have found his way into any number of awful Libertine-imitation bands, but instead fronts a band that sound like a mixture of the best parts of The Kooks, Dodgy and the new wave of twee anti-folk bands.

This little faux living room setting is perfect for this band; they have something distinctly old-fashioned about them. Smiling throughout their set and laughing when someone hits a bum note, they seem genuinely happy to be playing for this, now distinctly thinned, crowd. The only thing that matters for bands of this ilk though is whether they have a big single and theirs is The Boyfriend Song; a stand-out song from a stand-out performance. Go discover this band in one of these tiny venues that are in equal need of discovering too.

http://www.myspace.com/wherethemomerathsgo

THE MAPLE STATE @ THE WATER RATS 05/05/08

THE MAPLE STATE

I once loved The Maple State. At Least Until We Settle In... is one of my favourite EPs by any British band, a perfect mix of summery synth and catchy hooks that never sound formulaic, I could even forgive the American tinge to the vocals. But The Maple State are no longer that band. Seemingly, having realised that they were never going to find a market big enough to prosper, they took aim at the mainstream. In my opinion they missed.

Tonight I watch four of their songs. Not really a fair base with which to critique the band but those four songs, when coupled with the releases post-At Least Until We Settle In..., leave me feeling as though I will not give them another chance. They sound like they have rubbed up against so many harsh industry backs that any edge that they once had has long sanded away. To see a band with such promise change to fit suit is always sad, but worse still is that in the current market the old stuff would probably go down better.

http://www.myspace.com/themaplestate

REVERANCE FOR BENJAMIN/ LAURA FRANCES @ BLAG CLUB 23/04/08

REVERENCE FOR BENJAMIN

Reverance For Benjamin are two guys who look uncomfortable with being watched. Shy and whispery but much to the benefit of their music they rattle through their four or five songs with a soft, dainty flow that seems as though they're meant to be elsewhere and are worrying about being late. Their music however is lovely, simple acoustic music with a guitar and bass complimented by a voice that has some similarities to that of Ben Gibbard but is far more delicate and prone to breaking.

They manage to hold my attention throughout their short bursts of melancholy, that are only made more despondent by the echo coming from the speakers, that end with an unexpected abruptness. If I wrote any more with this review it would probably take longer to read this than it would for you to have sat through their set, but they left a mark with me, the kind of band that rummage through your memories as you listen to them, coughing up happy times and making you watch them at the back of your eyes with a sad nostalgic glow.

http://www.myspace.com/reverenceforbenjamin

LAURA FRANCES

Laura has only been playing guitar for six months and tonight she stretches everything that she can out of the four chords that she knows. To be on stage alone when you have just that one instrument and so little experience on it is either daft, brave or both, but Laura manages to avoid having to worry about that for, such is the strength of her voice, she could have taken to the stage unaccompanied and held my attention. With a vocal that seems just as comfortable with blues as it does folk, Laura could sing me the BNP manifesto and I'd be a racist bigot by the end of the night. However, instead of just relying entirely on her voice, she has managed to craft a collection of songs that, for the most part, the likes of Katie Melua or Adele would be clambering over each other to get at.

There are lots of acoustic acts out there though and Laura will definitely have to work on her guitar playing if she wants to be sure to stand out from the crowd, while she may also benefit from having some additional accompaniment, as long as it is kept sparse and appropriate. On this occasion though, in front of a crowd that consists mostly of friends and family, Laura can do no wrong and yet, when encouraged by the crowd to do a song about the Incredible Hulk for an encore, I get scared. I, for the most part, truly hate joke songs, but, yet again, Laura manages to shock me. By far the best song of the night the song is one of those intelligent takes on a joke premise and, despite forgetting the words right at the end, she manages to pull it together to end the night perfectly. A great set and a promising artist.

http://www.myspace.com/laurafrancesmusic

THE CAMDEN CRAWL

Having been to the Camden Crawl last year for the first time, this was always going to be a little different. Firstly it was beautiful sunshine, thick with humidity and offering plenty of chances for sitting in the street drinking between bands last year. This year it was thick with clouds and offering plenty of opportunities for attempting to get into packed non-Crawl pubs before settling for a Holsten drank in an alleyway behind the Camden Tup (something that we actually did on the Saturday). Another difference was that I knew a lot more about the bands playing this year, which meant that we wouldn't end up seeing bands like I Am Kloot again and I'd also be able to tell, to an extent, which bands were likely to command a queue and so were worth avoiding. One thing that we did insist upon keeping was the facial reviews, something that is bound to become a tradition at festivals for us now (however it seems that my limited ability with blog sites means that I cannot put the photos up without breaking the review. So if you want to see the photo reviews then head over to my myspace at http://www.myspace.com/thesimpson). But yes, the review:

FRIDAY

Having spent the morning playing computer games and experiencing my town's brand new Nandos (not bad but the layout is really awkward), we arrive at just before 16:00 to find that the queue for the wristbands is daunting. We join the end and wait until after fifteen minutes we have our wristbands and have started sifting through the programmes for our list of bands to see. With so much choice we decide on our first act, SLOW CLUB, and head to the venue - luckily The Enterprise as they have downstairs seating and a good selection of lagers to choose from - for a few beers and a seat so as to plan the rest of the day.

I have seen SLOW CLUB many times this year (including once in this venue previously) and they have never been short of superb. Their music is simple anti-folk but executed with smiles that make you wonder if they're ever going to tire of playing live. I sure hope that they don't as currently these giggles and banter make their live performances rate amongst the most uplifting and warming around. To take most of their songs from an as yet unreleased (possibly even unrecorded) album and yet manage to hold the attention of everyone in the room and have people queuing on the stairs praying people to leave just to allow them the opportunity to catch a song or two of their set, there must be something special about them. After the first song of their set they stop and Rebecca (drums and vocals) addresses the crowd with the statement, "I'm really sorry we were planning to go straight into the next song and be all cool," to which Charles (guitar and vocals) responds whilst chuckling softly, "We'll never be cool." The rest of the room let out a sigh of relief.

From The Enterprise we took a walk towards the NW1 where Operator Please were due to play. However, after turning the corner into Parkway we noticed the queue going round the block. Now our main rule with the Crawl is to not queue if it can be avoided and so we decided instead to head to Bullet Bar for two of the bands on the Drowned In Sound stage.

Up first was SKY LARKIN fan, nodded enthusiastically at my comparison confirming my ambivalence. Songs like 'Matador' go some way to change my opinion and if you like your indie music progressive, intelligent, and lacking in singalongs but full of hooks, then SKY who I had seen earlier in the week supporting Los Campesinos! but, due to the strange pact made by everyone in the crowd not to talk about the show, I had been unable to review properly. As it is I'm not overly bothered either way by them. They remind me of bands like Stapleton, a band that I feel that I should really love but who never manage to excite me. Stephen Davidson, lead singer of Tellison and massive Stapleton fan, agreed so if you like that kinf of band then Sky Larkin are worth a listen. I will inevitably continue to listen in hope of finally falling in love with them.

JOHNNY FOREIGNER took to the stage shortly after, a little too short in fact as they were soon asked to postpone the set for ten minutes as their slot wasn't due yet. People complained pantomime-like at first but as soon as the band were allowed to start everything was forgotten. Alexei's ability with a guitar is really only matched by his song-writing skills, and this band are going a long to way to becoming my favourite UK band. Yelped dual male-female vocals, thrashed guitar solos and the skill to change tone and tempo with aplomb are all qualities to jump straight into all playlists that I produce. JOHNNY FOREIGNER are frantic and melodic, chaotic and yet precise, they make me think of a time in a science lesson where we found a dead wasp and, using our power packs, put thirteen volts of electricity through it, making it shake amongst sparks. Watching this band I feel like that wasp.

After their set we headed to Bar Monsta for TELLISON. This band are consistently brilliant and make some of the poppiest, smart indie music around garnering comparisons to bands like The Futureheads (but I'd argue only really the Self-Titled Futureheads). They were also the band that I was most intrigued about seeing as the crowd at a Tellison show in London or Kingston is largely made up of the same people. Once you find Tellison you fall in love with Tellison, but tonight only those with wristbands would be here and I was certain that I'd be standing with a room of strangers sharing in breaking their Tellison cherry. As it was there were a fair amount of norms there and I stood with them and clapped, shouted and drummed along with them with perfect synchronisation. They aired three new songs tonight and all three sounded impressive but stand out in one of their sets as a Tellison song without a singalong just doesn't sit right. A good set despite the guitars being a little too low in the mix and the keyboards way too loud. After looking around the crowd tonight and noticing new faces amongst them I was happy to see smiling mouths moving along to the lyrics.

From here we ditched our friends in a hurry and made our way to queue outside the Underworld for The Noisettes. It had only just gone 23:00 and we were due an hour and a half wait for the band to come on, but the queue was already relatively large. It wasn't long before we were inside and the DJs were playing classic hip hop songs with the odd classic metal song thrown in. Risky mix but it worked well and the crowd really loved it. I wasn't drunk enough to go for it completely and was already tired of waiting at the start, but it sure helped the time fly by.

THE NOISETTES are a band that I like some songs by on record but had always wanted to see live through reputation. I wasn't really taken with them here. As a collective they are all talented musicians, their songs have potential and they seem entertaining enough to watch, but I'm left with an empty detached feeling throughout. No matter how many times Shingai throws her seductive legs around a guy or takes walks through the crowd I cannot see any impulse in these actions, instead seeing sharp, rehearsed moves that fail to grab me. A very competent rock 'n' roll band with one of the best female vocalists in the UK indie scene currently, but I won't be making an effort to see them again.

SATURDAY

We made sure to head up a little earlier on this occasion, partly because Lawrence wanted to see his friend from work's band, Winners, play the World's End, partly because we wanted to see some other fringe events, but mainly because we wanted to get 2 for 1 at Wagamamas before it got packed. After eating we went looking for a pub that was not too packed for a couple of pints before we started the day. Sadly, due to the Crawl, all of the pubs that are taking part tended to be closed until the event kicked off and so the other pubs were rammed. This wasn't helped either by the decision to have the festival on the Friday/Saturday this year rather than Thursday/Friday of last year, meaning that you had the normal Saturday crowds in the pubs too. After drinking a can in the street while getting rained on, we decided to just brave the crowds of the World's End for a drink and Winners.

WINNERS really aren't the type of band that evoke any feeling in me at all. Musically they sound like an indie Status Quo, while the singer switches between sounding like Johnny Borrell and Ian Dury. Basically they're a pop rock song with everything falling into shape throughout their songs with suitable predictability. For what they do though, they are not actually bad, and, looking at the other people in the crowd, seem to be a it of a hit with those who are fans of that kind of music.

From here we made our way, with some haste, to Koko to see LOS CAMPESINOS!, and the band were on within minutes after having had to queue outside. Los Campesinos! are the kind of band that seem to be having so much fun that you can't help but smile whenever you hear them. With this being the third time that I saw them within a week it would have been very easy for them to bore me, but their brand of twee, danceable indie had me nodding my head, tapping my toe and slapping my thigh within seconds of them taking the stage. This seven piece seem to be hitting their mainstream stride at just the right time as summer is the perfect season for their invasion.

We missed the end of Los Campesinos! so that we could make our way to the Underworld to see ELLE S'APPELLE. The Liverpool three-piece consist of keys, bass and drums which makes for a very 60s feel, and they manage to sound like what The Animals might have sounded like if they had the pop hooks of The Beatles and a female vocalist. And when they can unleash songs like their single Little Flame and provoke the first good natured, dancing, indie moshpit that I'd seen at the Crawl, kids with face paint and another who's shoe was thrown onstage and confiscated by the band for the rest of the set dance-moshing together with happiness smeared across their face, you can't help but enjoy yourself. One of the best new bands that I saw over the weekend for sure.

From here we headed to the Earl Of Camden in the hope of seeing Ipso Facto but there was a queue when we arrived that seemed large enough to give little chance of seeing them and so we headed to The Purple Turtle, spotting Julian Barrett on the way wearing a rather dashing cream polo neck, in the hope of seeing The Answering Machine but they too had a queue. We then decided to go and see JIM GIPSON at the Camden Tup, mainly because Lawrence liked his name. We listened to three quarters of one song and then left. He was given the title: 'The Yorkshire Jeff Buckley' in the little booklet about the Crawl , but instead he sounded like every other generic acoustic singer-songwriter out there made even worse by having a backing band. It is probably too harsh to have even written this much of a review on him and so I've decided against putting the facial reviews up for him. And so, after leaving the Tup we opted for the Electric Ballroom to go and have drinks with a friend working the bar there. After a bunch of double mixers each we headed back to the Underworld and their extortionate bar prices.

LYKKE LI is a Swedish songstress with a childlike voice and penchant for very adult-like lyrics. Her voice gives her songs a very disco feel and her dance moves make her look like a grime star, but really she is just a great alternative popstar about to burst through into the charts with the kind of indie credibility that Kate Nash works so very hard to try and gain. Watching her is a rather strange feeling, she appears fragile on stage, as though she really is putting herself out there entirely, and you almost want to give her a big hug. Her set is almost ruined by the appearance of Robyn for set closer I'm Good I'm Gone. Putting aside my dislike for Robyn anyway, when someone comes to join in with backing vocals on a few lines for the chorus they should not require a piece of paper that they put to their face every time her moment comes round to remember them. Still, Lykke Li is someone you have to see if you like pop music.

Now, with one last slot left at the festival and with few options as to who we would want to fill it and none of the big names tickling our fancy, we decided to go with a sure shot. And so, for the second time and to bookend the Crawl perfectly, our last band of the official Crawl was SLOW CLUB again. Tonight, at the Oh! Bar, they seemed more relaxed than ever, laughing joking, playing a song that I had never heard before, covering the first part of Apologize by One Republic before going into Slow Club Summer Shakedown; the band seemed to be even more comfortable on stage than they normally are. Probably my favourite band around at the moment and the perfect way to get me in a good mood to go party afterwards somewhere.

As it was, Lawrence's friend from Winners, a thoroughly nice guy called Nick had offered us passes for the after-show party at Dingwalls. Of course we were happy to oblige and made our way to The Monarch where he was apparently hanging out with The Mighty Boosh. When we arrived, however, there were no members of The Boosh and Nick was at the front dancing along to this band:

THE DIRTY FEEL are like The Commitments but not as good. Covering things songs like Superstition by Stevie Wonder and announcing before every song that "this is a perfect Saturday night party song" or something like that, they manage to sound like a weddings cover band, although I'm not sure if they played some original material too. I was in a good mood however and danced along with Nick and Lawrence at the front and found them inoffensive enough. Talented musicians pushing a style of music that will not attract the masses but they seem to enjoy what they're doing.

After The Dirty Feel's third or fourth encore encouraged by the guy who had arranged this fringe event, Nick led us upstairs to where the free beer was meant to be. There was an empty trough with some plastic beer rings floating in shallow water. No problems, as Nick had the free passes and the party promised free alcohol and, regardless, we had been expecting to buy drinks all night anyway. So, when Nick went to the cashpoint to get money for his friend, Lawrence and I bought some drinks and sat down to wait. People started dismantling the stage and two girls, the kind that wear black with white polka dots, red lipstick and powder their cheeks, started playing classic Americana mixed with other great oldies. The Monarch had emptied a whole lot by this point and, having never been packed before, there were only around twenty people left in there and most stood at the bar. This meant that the few who decided to dance (we were amongst them) had room to actually move their feet without worrying about who you might bump in to. It wasn't anywhere near the way we had imagined ending the Crawl but I couldn't have thought of a better alternative as I danced, hands in back pockets, to The White Stripes. Nick came back soon after and it started to become apparent that you actually required a black wristband to get into the after-show party. Nick had one but he only had band passes for us. We went along anyway and, as expected, he was allowed in and we weren't. Deciding against attempting any of the other clubs, we made our way home via KFC.

With a week's retrospect, and after writing this review, I really enjoyed the Crawl this year. Yes I could have probably seen all of the bands that I saw play their own gigs with longer sets and for the same collective price as the wristband, but it isn't all about the bands. The Crawl may now find itself in the industry's grasp but, bar waiting for The Noisettes, I saw little of that. What I did see is lots of people having fun and chatting to others and generally treating this like a festival. You don't get that at gigs. Another interesting feature was the emergence of females in good bands. I am a big fan of male and female dual vocals and my this review shows that, but I like that these girls are now part of the scene in such a positive way. I said on the Saturday night that I probably wouldn't be back next year; I retract that now.

KEEPING SCORES @ NEW CROSS INN 16/04/08

KEEPING SCORES

Before tonight no one knew what Keeping Scores sounded like. I'd even hazard a guess that the band were unsure after their reluctance to commit to comparisons to other bands. That is to be expected before your first ever gig though and, with no songs online, you wouldn't want to state similarities to other bands to then sound nothing like them and leave people disappointed. After a minute of their performance tonight the band could rest assured that disappointment was not likely.

There were glitches. Ash on lead vocals managed to, due to throwing himself around the entire venue, pull the lead from his microphone on occasion and Alex's guitar had some feedback issues, but these are to be expected from a debut gig. On the positive side Ash's voice is quite incredible and the songs are filled with enough opportunities for 'Woahs', hand-claps and finger-points to keep any melodic hardcore fan happy.

I spent the night recording the entirety of their set on a video camera as Ash's mum had wanted to see the show but couldn't make it. The masses of fun and lashings of humility really add to this confident first outing for Keeping Scores. Here's hoping that his mum was impressed.

SKY LARKIN/ LOVVERS/ LOS CAMPESINOS! @ BRIXTON WINDMILL 14/04/08

Towards the end of Los Campesino's set they spoke to the audience to say how special the gig was, how we were all in this together and how we should keep it that way. I didn't hear but apparently there was some kind of pact made that no one would review this gig. I like the idea but I wrote an oath at the beginning of the year to review every gig. What a pickle! As a compromise I will review each band with only two, relatively short sentences. Hope that no one minds.

SKY LARKIN

I was really impressed with Katie Larkin's vocals but more so with her ability as a guitarist, where she mainly played an exciting breed of rhythm but also showed tempting glimpses of brilliant lead. A good pop-rock band that I look forward to hopefully seeing in a field some time this summer.

LOVVERS

Sounding like a mixture of The Ramones and Be Your Own Pet, this sleazy, garage-punk band made sure that they would be remembered when vocalist Shaun Hencher decided to terrorize the crowd for the entirety of the set rather than ever take to the stage. Musically I enjoyed them but I was far less enthused by the vocals.

LOS CAMPESINOS!

The sound, although a little low on volume from where I was standing, had far greater in clarity and allowed myself to bask in Los Campesinos' many different strands of sound floating through the air like coloured ribbons billowing in the wind. I am seriously impressed by this group who are destined for the mainstream this summer.

LOS CAMPESINOS! @ AFTER SKOOL 12/04/08

LOS CAMPESINOS!

I hate bands playing at club nights. It just feels really fake, especially in large spaces where people will not really be dancing much before or between the band(s) but will be standing waiting for them to come on. I have a simple explanation how this can work:

Bands then club = WOOP!
Club then band then club (repeat if appropriate) = POOP!

Done, and tonight definitely fell into the latter.

But that is not the band's fault. Neither was it their fault that the sound was appalling on occasions throughout the entire set and that there were some real wankers at the front who had no consideration for anyone. These were all things that I had expected when pondering this event and so I couldn't blame the band one iota, and what they could control they did so with some ability. Managing to take twee and add a real dancability to it, Los Campesinos! seem to have everyone in the know taking notice and, on tonights evidence, they will soon be making people take notice on dance floors all over the country and further afield.

http://www.myspace.com/loscampesinos

PUNKTASTIC UNSCENE FOUR LAUNCH/ THE STEAL @ THE BORDERLINE 30/03/08

PUNKTASTIC UNSCENE FOUR LAUNCH

To celebrate the release of the fourth instalment of the Punktastic Unscene series, Punktastic and Banquet Records (the two companies behind the release) decided to attempt something a little different. With the release taking the form of ninety-nine thirty second songs, they invited as many of the bands featured on the compilation to play their thirty second song and one other of their choice. For most bands capable of pulling modest crowds at gigs across the country this wouldn't be an enticing offer, especially if you don't live in the London area, and perhaps this was why the quality of the acts really didn't manage to stand out. Or perhaps it was due to the strange case of only getting to see around seven minutes of each band before they moved on. I'm not a fan of compilation cds and so with this just being a live incarnation of the comp it may be a little unfair of me to judge.

There was one band though that managed to catch my eye. The Ruined have been labelled goth-punk and have had comparisons made with The Misfits and inevitably My Chemical Romance would be thrown their way too, but they managed to seem polished, professional and confident while performing hook-laden pop punk. If the point of a compilation cd is to hopefully come across a band that you haven't listened to before and like them, then The Ruined managed to make this a successful compilation evening for me.

http://www.banquetrecords.com/index.jsp?item=8765

THE STEAL

It would interest me to know how many people had bought tickets to this gig before The Steal announced that they were playing. After seven months without a single show, to announce this as your return was sure to get some people through the door. The seven months seemed to have taken their toll too, the band seeming to have to take even longer breaks between their Kid Dynamite styled hardcore to catch their breaths. But then when the crowd are throwing themselves around like leaves in an almighty gale for the entirety of every song, they too are happy for the moment's rest for backslaps and sighs.

The Steal manage to pull the same people every time. Wherever they might be playing throughout the country there is always likely to be one of the London-Kingston contingent there, and tonight they're at the front, as always, getting as involved as possible. This includes people throwing themselves from the stage, crowd surfing on a shallow crowd and even constructing two human pyramids that leave those involved in agony. But no one shows it, not until their set is over anyway. Positivity is the name of The Steal's game and no one is willing to break that rule.

There are question marks over whether this band will ever release any new material or tour as often as they once were, but tonight that didn't show, nor did it matter. The Steal weren't great but after seven months they only had to turn up to keep the crowd happy. As their set drew to an anticlimactic conclusion everyone's frowns from the previous bands had been forced upside down. The Steal still have it.

http://www.myspace.com/thesteal

LOST ON CAMPUS/ FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY/ MIMI SOYA @ THE BRIXTON WINDMILL 26/03/08

LOST ON CAMPUS

The last time that I saw Lost On Campus it was just Rob and a guitar playing songs in a working mans club in Goole at a mutual friend's birthday show while the audience sat on the floor supping their ridiculously cheap plonk. A fair bit has changed since then. Rob has been on a few mini-tours and he has tightened the act accordingly. Also on board now is his trusty laptop providing backing beats and sounds akin to early Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (a sound I feel was superior to when he got the band involved). The nucleus has remained the same though, it's still Rob and his acoustic guitar playing college rock songs about girls.

It is here that you notice Lost On Campus' first problem. British singer-songwriters are supposed to write songs routed in gritty, grimy, mundane reality. Kitchen sink music, sung with a northern or cockney accent. Rob is camp, fun and has songs that are more of the Dashboard Confessional school of acoustic rock than Frank Turner. While this means that I can't see as much of a market for him as those anti-folk starlets coming through, it makes his placing on this pop punk bill suitable and he manages to entertain because of his somewhat cliched lyrics and cheesy laptop accompaniment rather than despite.

The highlight of the set came with a new song written about his dad's death. A tender and heartfelt song that manages to captivate everyone watching and finishes with an explosive applause. Lost On Campus have pop hooks in every song and repeat them often enough for you to still be mouthing them long after the other bands have finished. Not really my kind of acoustic act but still fun and if you're a fan of Dashboard or The Rocket Summer then you would be well advised to check them out.

http://www.myspace.com/lostoncampus

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY

I would imagine that without Flash! Flash! Flash! Photography and England vs. France on the television The Windmill would have been almost empty tonight. A cold, wet Wednesday evening is hardly the optimum choice of conditions for a pop punk gig featuring out of town, barely heard of bands, but 3FP are such a draw (excusing the couple of old geezers in the corner who have yet to realise that watching England friendlies is a pointlessly frustrating experience) that the place is as full as it is.

With a larger stage Mike (lead vocals) finally has the space he desires to take control of the stage, and although the band seem more comfortable, they also seem tired. This coupled with the gig running late from the off means that the band cut the majority of their between song banter and run through the songs with more professionalism but less energy. This is reflected in the crowd who stand stationary until set closer Aquaman when everyone dispenses of their adrenalin reserves and some fun is had. A good gig that just about makes having headed out in the rain worthwhile.

http://www.myspace.com/flashflashflashphotography

MIMI SOYA

I didn't want to mention Paramore. I honestly didn't but when everyone I spoke to before, during and after MiMiSoya compared the two it would seem sloppy of me not to talk of the likeness. To me there is very little similarity and it is unfair of people to instantly throw around negative connotations just because this is girl fronted pop punk.

MiMi Soya do nothing for me though. It just seems to me quite lazy and formulaic, with little to entice me away from those bands that they are influenced by.

http://www.myspace.com/mimisoya

THE CURE @ WEMBLEY ARENA 20/03/08

THE CURE

If I had to make a list of favourite bands The Cure would be amongst it. If I had to make a list of potential songs that I'd like to cover if I were in a band my hardest decision would be which Cure song to cover or whether to even attempt one in the first place. They are, in my eyes, one of the most important bands to have ever existed and, despite their many changes in line-up, are still one of the only bands I'd have been unhappy to die without seeing. There are amost no reasons at all for me to be willing to part with around £45 to spend the night in Wembley Arena, but The Cure are reason enough to do so. But it was a little more than even I expected and not entirely in a positive way.

I was hoping for a long set, maybe twenty or twenty-five songs; enough to play the majority of the hits to please the likes of me, maybe a couple of album tracks to please the completists and then a few new ones to please the band. But with the band taking to the stage at eight o'clock, I figured that we were either set for an early curfew or an epic set. Seeing that the band ended up playing three encores, forty-one songs and played for at least forty minutes over the curfew, I'd say that it could only be described as epic. For me though, a dedicated and yet casual fan who has never had the time to listen to all of their many albums but has played no album more than their Greatest Hits, it felt a little more like an endurance test by the end. At 11:20 and after thirty-seven songs I did something that I never thought possible at a Cure gig and something I haven't done in years now, I left early with bruised feet and aching calves.

It was impossible for this to be a bad show for me though. If I had written this directly after the gig then I might not have ended this review now and not added this slightly positive ending but retrospect is a wonderful thing. Lacking a brass section and with Wembley working it's cavernous, echo-heavy magic, they sometimes sounded a little empty and lacking, but when they played the songs that I knew, I was so happy I could scream (to quote the band). The backdrop was suitably sparse and the lighting managed to be subtly perfect, and at times this felt like ones of those gigs littered with inspiring, life affirming moments. But then at close to four hours long, I guess they owe you some.

FOALS @ ASTORIA 17/03/08

FOALS

Foals are a bunch of incredibly talented musicians. Every instrument is mastered; the drumming is precise complexities, the lead guitarist manages to play terribly difficult guitar parts whilst throwing himself around in a manner where I'd struggle to even stay on my feet, and even Yannis with his yelped vocals manage to make the perfect equilateral band. But they also manage to prove why the current popularity of 'rock' music is actually a detrimental force to the scene. Foals are yet to release their album at the time that they play this show and yet they've sold out a 2000 capacity venue, have been main support for a Bloc Party tour that ended with two nights at Alexandra Palace and have appeared on the front cover of every appropriate music publication. Which leaves you wondering, 'All of this on the back of a couple of singles?' If this had happened five years ago they'd be headlining the Barfly or possibly The Garage and getting tiny columns in the 'To Be Watched' sections of the music press. Instead we have a band who have so much potential they have some saved in off-shore accounts, but who appear to be suffering from the spotlight too soon. It is apparent in their performance tonight and even in their debut album.

The singles, as expected, manage to stand out in the set, while Olympic Airwaves and set-closer Electric Bloom manage to stand their own, but too often it seems as though something is missing. Perhaps it is the self-belief that would normally come from working their way up through the venues over years or perhaps they were just suffering from the end-of-tour-tiredness, but whatever it is I'm left feeling empty. While the band prove tonight that they should be one of the best UK bands to emerge in the noughties, they will only achieve this if they're given the time to build a sound on their ability without too much expectation.

http://www.myspace.com/foals

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY @ THE SOCIAL 17/03/08

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY

3FP are impossible to generalise. Marsha of Xfm fame labelled them 'fight-pop'. Now, even putting my hatred for genres that make no sense and are lacking in any indication as to the band's musical stylings aside (if I were to not disregard it I'd label them 'party-core'), I disagree. She also puts Tellison in the same group but you'd hardly lump them together. In fairness she has only heard Aquaman and you could draw some comparisons there I guess, but this band currently seem unable to decide what they want to sound like and instead sound like bits of everything. This is charming in a way, but disjointed too and I'd imagine that people might love one song and then head to the bar during the one after as it's not their kind of thing.

Tonight they air two new songs, both of which hint at a more defined direction. The first to be played, Beeps And Clicks, is one that the band have been championing as their biggest 'hit' yet, so much so that it has even found it's way into their Facebook statuses. And yet tonight it fails to grab me. Unlike the other debutant, Steven Glansberg, which leaves myself and others around me dumbfounded. Sounding like a Kerrang! mash-up of The Bronx's Californian rock 'n' roll with smatterings of the pop-hardcore of Set Your Goals and even a shake of Be Your Own Pet's youthful abandonment, 3FP have managed to write one of my favourite songs of 2008.

I feared them topping that and, had it not been for their especially prepared cover of Flying Without Wings by Westlife in honour of St Patrick's Day, I doubt they would have. Starting at the regular pace of the ballad, the tempo slowly crept up on me until Mike was in full screaming and the band were in sloppy-punk mode, at which point Folu would interject with the next verse at the original speed and take the song off the boil just to build it up again. An incredible adaption that proves that the band really know how to make a song their own, they followed that with traditional set-closer, Aquaman and I left for the Astoria a happy fan.

http://www.myspace.com/flashflashflashphotography

LENNY KRAVITZ @ KOKO 13/03/08

LENNY KRAVITZ

I was raised on Lenny Kravitz. When I try to remember the first song that I ever saw on MTV, back when MTV was just the one channel, I think of Are You Gonna Go My Way by Kravitz. I remember the lights and the female drummer. I think of the dreads. And it is not at all surprising that I think of that riff. He was always one of those acts that I'd love to see based purely on my youth, but I only bought tickets for this show due to my mum desperately wanting to see him. At £40.20 each ticket after fees I certainly wouldn't have bought tickets if it weren't for her. I was even less enthused when I found out that there would be no support. All of that money for just one man, and what turned out to be a one hour and forty-five minute set.

It wasn't really worth it. He has produced many albums each crammed with a ton of filler and the odd anthemic single. With this show destined to be used to road-test his latest album, Love Revolution, live, I understood that we would probably get half hits and half shite. Something that I did not expect however was Lenny Kravitz to bring with him his merry bunch of talented session musicians (including a brass section) and then masquerade as the new James Brown, extending his new songs into jazz-funk odysseys that were more just odd. The one saving grace was his ability to pull out a hit at just the right moment to remind me that he can write them, and with songs like Mr Cab Driver, Again and Fly Away unleashed he managed to appease me.

Well until Let Love Rule that is. Having kept the older songs to their original length previously, he decided to extend this one by continually repeating the title lyric, before he began preaching unity, brotherhood, Christianity and a need for a 'Love Revolution' to the crowd. He then asked for people to join him on stage for a mass dance along. The whole thing was painful. Looking over the faces of the crowd you could see that his search for community had been successful, it just meant that everyone was united in alienating his warmth with beautiful British cynicism. Some things are best left to the past it seems.

http://www.myspace.com/lennykravitz

CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE @ BUSH HALL 05/03/08

CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone are like watching that moment in City Of Angels when Meg Ryan dies and Nicholas Cage is left alone having given up an eternity for a few measly hours with her. It is like the moment when Anna leaves in The O.C. and Seth is left, tears in his eyes and his nose pressed against the glass of the airport check-in window. It is like those songs that you listen to when you break up with the kind of girl or guy who shape your life and is like when your best friend leaves for another country and you wonder how you ever coped before you met them. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone manage to harness all of that misery and emotion and melancholy and make songs out of it, songs that make your stomach tangle and your throat dry. Live this only happens quicker and more emphatically.

Drawing largely from Etiquette they only really leave out Tonight Was A Disaster from the 'must play' list of songs, but this really doesn't matter. Opening with Cold White Christmas, Owen Ashworth (the man behind CFTPA) has the audience hushed and attentive from the very off. His electro-fused emo couldn't be better suited to his sullen, almost monotone vocals that express his stories of abandonment, false hope and emptiness with aplomb. And so, when Jenny Herbinson joins him on stage to add some female vocals to the mix, it is quite a surprise to find that her innocent, borderline naive, sunshine-like personality manages to add just the right tone to the songs to give them an idea of possibility, but the kind of possibility that would never come true. The highlight of the set for me though was Hobby Holly where Owen sang alone, unaccompanied by any instrument for the vast majority of the song before a small explosion of sound toward the end. Somehow, cutting the clutter and just having the voice, broken and unashamed, singing as though it were only him and Holly in the room managed to make the whole song so much more poignant.

Somewhat coincidentally this show happened to be the very first that I went to alone. It didn't end up being at all painful however. CFTPA are a band that are best suited to having no distractions, nothing to disturb your mind from fixating on the beautiful agony of real life represented without shame or excuses, just a hope that one day a smile will see you through.

http://www.myspace.com/cftpa

SLOW CLUB/ THE WAVE PICTURES @ THE ENTERPRISE 04/03/08

SLOW CLUB

This is the third time that I've seen Slow Club in 2008 and I'm getting to a point where it is impossible to describe quite how great they are. So I will try to explain it in an alternative way. Having introduced an ex-girlfriend of mine to them at the beginning of the year and her now being just as much of a fan as I a, I decided to buy an extra ticket on this occasion too and introduce my best friend to them. To put it simply, he has asked me to not only ensure that I buy him a ticket for every gig I go to that Slow Club play in future, but also for me to introduce him to more bands that I like in the future. Apparently they're good enough to reinstate his faith in my music taste.

The band currently only have a single that has been released as well as an early demo (or at least that's all that I've been able to get my hands on) and so they draw largely from songs that will be appearing on their imminent debut album. However, where some bands might suffer with this unfamiliarity, Slow Club manage to make their music seem familiar. Perhaps this is in it's simplicity, or perhaps it is due to the catchy, pop-like elements of their acoustic, stripped-down music. Ultimately I feel that Slow Club manage to answer that age-old question of, 'If I love this band this much how can other people not feel the same?' Slow Club, it would appear, make it impossible not to like them.

I will inevitably see this band at least five or six times more this year. It seems that I'm powerless to buy tickets and desperate to see them in action. You should see them, I promise that you will start paying more attention to my recommendations if you do.

http://www.myspace.com/slowclub


THE WAVE PICTURES

When I saw The Wave Pictures supporting Slow Club just over a month ago I was a fan of the way they went about their music even if their music didn't appeal to me greatly. There was a certain swagger and light-heartedness about their performance, from the soloing on lead and bass guitars to the giggle-worthy banter between songs, all of which seems to have been lost in this performance. Perhaps the band are taking the show a little more seriously due to the packed room and their headline slot, but I feel that something vital has definitely been lost in the process.

I expected my friend - the one that I dragged along to see Slow Club - to really like The Wave Pictures. They're currently producing music that belongs in the mid-90s but seems current enough to warrant a revival. My friend, who I remember loving Suede and Supergrass and other bands that once graced the superb 'Shine' series, should lap these up. But instead he appears totally uninterested. I am too and I'm starting to feel embarrassed for expecting him to be a fan. I'm certain that he would have been had he seen them at the Borderline when they managed to impress me. Tonight we both decided to leave early instead.

http://www.myspace.com/thewavepictures

JIMMY EAT WORLD @ BRIXTON ACADEMY 18/02/08

JIMMY EAT WORLD

I have somehow always managed to not see Jimmy Eat World. I would have missed them this time too had my friend not had an extra ticket. Jimmy Eat World have been one of the most interesting and strangely pioneering bands of the last ten or so years. Walking the tight-ropes of pop-punk and emo without ever really being able to be classified as either, they have managed to produce some remarkable albums that are so far removed from the disposable products normally released from bands of either of those two genres. The fact that the majority of the crowd at Brixton are over twenty-one is the best way to emphasise quite how well respected this band are.

Jimmy Eat World take to the stage and from the off something doesn't seem quite right. My initial excitement wore thin by the end of the first song and I was left wondering what was off. They were very tight and their back catalogue, that is littered with both hits and cult classics, meant that it was never going to get boring, but at times they managed to skirt with the possibility. In their defense, I feel that it is often hard for bands to create the required atmosphere in a venue of this size, and I feel that this was Jimmy Eat World's problem. They played well but the venue was just too large.

I went to this gig with a heavy, painful cough that I needed to rest and with the sing-a-long potential of Jimmy Eat World I thought that this would be a curse. Rarely did it become so though. The big hits and my personal favourite, 23, made me move my lips but hardly belt the words out or throw my finger in the air. This was not bad but it wasn't great either.

http://www.myspace.com/jimmyeatworld

EMMY THE GREAT/ GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY @ KOKO 15/02/08

EMMY THE GREAT

First things first, I must get a huge gripe off of my chest. One thing that I hate is when people talk loud enough to drown out bands playing, especially when bands play the kind of soft, emotional and emphatically melancholic acoustic music that Emmy The Great plays. These people that jabber on throughout should fuck off to the bar and talk there, not stand at front-centre and chat the whole way through the set, laughing through songs about abortions and car crashes. It made me want to smash their skulls across the barrier as she played, to manipulate one of Emmy's lyrics.

Emmy, as a whole, failed to take my attention from the three bacteria next to me. Her songs didn't suit the size of the venue and few people had bothered to arrive early enough to see her, despite her being the main support. The sound was also far too quiet. The fact that I could hear these people next to me was bad enough, but that Emmy seemed to be able to hear them too implies that the sound was way too low. The band didn't really seem comfortable with the songs either which meant that the best moments came when it was just Emmy and her guitar.

I think that Emmy, unlike Sam Duckworth, will always suit the smaller, more intimate venues. Perhaps she will grow to become one of those artists that play Bush Hall or the Scala and charge £25 a ticket rather than play venues like Koko, but currently this tour and her impending visit to SXSW are both aimed at getting her the exposure that she deserves. My only problem is that, after this performance, she doesn't seem ready. There was no sheen on the set and not only was I left wishing that she'd performed Hypnotist's Daughter but that her set had been a little more rehearsed and a lot more confident.

http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat

GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY.

I have never seen Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly in a big venue before. My last time seeing him was in a friend's living room and the time before that was at the Brixton Windmill in 2006 only a month or so after he had been signed. I had wanted to see him in a proper venue for a while though, to see someone who I had seen a few times when still travelling on the National Express all over the country and with just a guitar and a laptop for accompaniment, on a big stage, the kind of stage that I'd seen big acts in my past. I missed the Astoria and Forum shows and so was determined to see this one.

As soon as Sam took to the stage it was amazing. Instead of the jeans and t-shirt of old, he and his band - the last time I saw him he had no bassist and there was just one person in the brass section - were all donning suits, and then Sam picked up an electric guitar and I thought that this was his Bob Dylan moment. He thrashed his way through a new song and I didn't really enjoy it. The charm of the guy with the acoustic guitar had been lost, now he was a normal band and Get Cape sound normal in that field. The older songs still sound brilliant though and the crowd really get behind them. Towards the end I find that I'm moving further towards the back due to the amount of people pogoing and showing complete disregard for others as they show their passion for the music, and, despite the personal inconvenience, I am overcome with pride for Sam and what he has achieved. The final song of the set was a further step away from the original Get Cape sound, as they attempt an epic end to the set with some almost post-rock sound pouring from the speakers.

I'm not currently very convinced by what I've heard of the new album and this gig did nothing to build some anticipation within me, but it was nice to see a guy who has succeeded in his goals and is enjoying the life that these achievements allow him. However, on this occasion, I'm left longing for a shorter set and a little something to keep my attention.

http://www.myspace.com/getcapewearcapefly

SLOW CLUB/ HOT CLUB DE PARIS @ THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL 12/02/08

Before I review either band I really must talk about the venue choice. At first when buying the tickets I thought that it was a little bizarre. While it was obviously going to be in one of the smaller rooms upstairs, I still thought it was bizarre for a small label to put on a gig in a venue like this and run the risk of things being broken etc. But on second thoughts I think that it shows such a great faith that Moshi Moshi have in the fans of their label that they know them to be conscientious music lovers who are not attending gigs to get wasted and wreck some shit, but to appreciate new and exciting music. Top work and the label DJs who played songs before, in between and after the bands really helped show why Moshi Moshi have been and will inevitably continue to be incredible talent scouts and one of the best UK labels.

SLOW CLUB

I fucking love Slow Club. Not the best way to start a review but I think that it sums up my opinion both succinctly and entirely, well enough in fact for me to add nothing else and I'd feel as though I'd expressed myself adequately. They are lush and pretty and simple and other words like that. Watching them makes me feel light, as though my bone marrow has been replaced by tiny helium balloons. There is also something inherently English about their music and this makes The Royal Albert Hall seem as perfect a venue for them as a tea shop.

They have troubles tonight though. Their equipment had been doused in coffee on the way down (this was explained to us in an anecdote told to us between songs) and this caused Charles' lead to take issue with his guitar on occasion, Rebecca had a cold, and then, during their penultimate song, Charles managed to break a string which meant that they had no option but to play their final song acoustically, without microphones or percussion. But instead of letting these issues hold them back they embraced them, and the final song was one of the best of the set. Another stand-out song in their set for me was new song Trophy Room. This song managed to sound really big and had me thinking of the old Johnny Cash and June Carter duets.

Slow Club's set was far too short for me. This worked for them what with the problems that they had faced, but I was left wanting far more. Acoustic music seems to currently be either mainstream tat (Newton Faulkner), political (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) or else whimsical tales of every day life (Sam Isaac), but Slow Club don't really fit into any of those. They instead manage to sound refreshing, heart-crushing and uplifting throughout their set and you're left with your heart feeling bruised and your lungs needing breathe. They remind me of that feeling when you see someone on a passing train and fall in love with their face but then they're gone before love could ever let you down. Slow Club are like that feeling, love without disappointment.

http://www.myspace.com/slowclub

HOT CLUB DE PARIS

Hot Club De Paris are a three-piece from Liverpool who sit alongside Slow Club on my list of 'Must Hear Albums' of 2008. Managing to sound like a constantly crashing sea of sound, they manage to muster incredibly complex songs and then play them at twice the pace of the recorded version when playing live. I first saw Hot Club when they played in Leeds with Dartz! and you can see the similarities between the bands. Both play spiky indie music which is far more technical than it might seem, but Hot Club manage to push the technical elements far further and quite often throughout their set I'm dumbfounded by quite how good this band are as musicians.

Hot Club decide to take this opportunity to play a set that is littered with songs from the forthcoming album, using the old songs just to keep people interested here and there. I don't think that I'd have lost interest though; the new songs are extremely promising. While it would appear that they have thankfully kept the playfully humourous song titles - I Wasn't Being Heartless When I Said That Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart is a prime example of this - they seem to have matured with their song structures and the strength of the playing seems far superior to anything on Drop It 'Til It Pops.

The between song banter is, as always, hilarious. Topics covered included discussing how they were big fans of the Chicago Bulls of baseball, how Bruce Springsteen adds an extra inch to his stage height and an amusing anecdote about how The Beat are "total arseholes, the type of people who would skank on your grave." Hot Club De Paris are set to return this year and once again deliver an album that should make people pay attention.

On the back of this gig I wouldn't mind joining either band's club.

http://www.myspace.com/hotclubdeparis

LOS CAMPESINOS!/ LES SAVY FAV @ THE ASTORIA 10/02/08

LOS CAMPESINOS!

Los Campesinos! are one of those fashionable bands that people are quick to look down on because publications like NME or Vice have been singing their praises. I'd have been tempted to avoid them too had I not actively attempted to give bands the benefit of the doubt this year. I'd read reports on them where they had been described as twee and intent on avoiding success and mainstream appeal, but with their brand of music I can't see that being possible.

I watched the band from the balcony having arrived just as they began their first song and my first thought was just how well they suited this large venue. With seven members to the band the stage hardly seemed too big but more importantly their sound really suited the acoustics, bouncing back off the walls making it seem far more epic than could ever have been intended. Musically they were very tight too which, with The Astoria's relatively poor sound and so many different instruments being played at once, was a far bigger achievement than it might seem.

Los Campesinos! sound like summer on record but tonight they sound perfect for a cold February evening. They sound dark, as though there has always been a melancholy running through their music that is only noticeable when played live. Twee? I'm not so sure. Yes they play a lot of xylophone, the female vocals are lush like meadows and the lyrics seem like wonderfully crafted cola-cubes, but twee seems to imply flimsy to me and that certainly couldn't be levelled at them. If you're suffering from a cold or cough as I am then I recommend a heavy dose of Los Campesinos! to warm your insides up.

http://www.myspace.com/loscampesinos

LES SAVY FAV

Les Savy Fav are a band that have been going since 1995 and now, twelve years later, they have broken into the mainstream and are getting the buzz that they have deserved for so long. The reason for this seems to have been the press that they have received for their fourth album, Let's Stay Friends. They seem to have created a sound that really suits them, taking the renowned New York sound and adding a steelier, heavier edge to it, perfect for dancing to but also good to sing along to in the car with friends.

Live they owe a lot to their unorthodox in every way front man. Tim Harrington is responsible only for vocals but is also the focal point of the group for their entire set. He takes to the stage dressed like the Phantom Of The Opera and then proceeds, once the first song gets under way, to shed his costume to show a Hawaiian shirt underneath. Throughout the set Tim manages to get through as many costume changes as any Mariah Carey episode of Cribs, at times being an explorer and even coming on for the encore dressed as an angel, blonde curly wig and all. But his showmanship doesn't end at outfits, Tim also spends as much time in the crowd as he does onstage, at times going as far towards the back of the room that he can no longer be seen anymore from my position on the balcony. He also has a member of the crowd join him onstage where he rides him like a horse.

With all this spectacle it would be easy for the show to turn into a shambles or for you to ignore the most important part of the show: the music, but the band are incredible throughout and Tim, despite all of his shenanigans and no matter where he might be in the venue at the time, never misses a line and always sounds as clear as a glacier. Les Savy Fav are the perfect cure for a heavy bout of tiredness and kept me thoroughly entertained in every possible way. To be both style and substance is quite an achievement and I can't wait for them to come back to these shores for more shows; I'd imagine the security staff will be less enthused to see Tim take to the stage again.

http://www.myspace.com/lessavyfav