Los Campesinos!

I recently reconnected with an old friend I went to grade school with back in NJ. He now lives in LA and manages a great restaurant/bar called Mirabelle on Sunset. This restaurant happens to be fairly close to the Troubadour, so I stopped in for dinner and a beverage prior to going to see Los Campesinos! After I clarified that they were not a Latino, but a Welsh band... he asked what kind of music it was. As you know, I hate this question. But I gave him the simple answer: Tweecore. So, after I let the blank stare linger a moment longer, I came up with, "imagine Iggy & The Stooges covering Raffi (or maybe the other way around?) and that will get you somewhere in the neighborhood."

After I ate, I headed over to the show and was disappointed that I only caught the last song of a band I was actually curious about, Parenthetical Girls, and I totally missed Abe Vigoda, which I heard was incredible. During the short break, I got my adult beverage and thank goodness I got it quickly because before I knew it, the band was on stage and ready to go @ about 10p... This is remarkably early for a headliner on a Saturday night, no?

In any case, Los Campesinos! started their set with the polychoral 'ONE TWO THREE FOUR, ONE TWO THREE FOUR' introduction heard on the track, 'Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats'. And from there it was loud, animated, clappy, dansy, and sweaty music for the next 45 minutes. An unfamiliar listener might not have understood that the wanton cacophony generating such excitement was actually quite calculated and extraordinarily tight... While it was obvious that the crowd embraced Los Campesinos! from the motions of their bobbing heads, it wasn't until members of Parenthetical Girl came out into the audience that the crowd let loose. It seems that these two bands have generated quite a bond, and there was some serious emotion when lead singer began talking about how hard it was going to be to part with their touring companions.

Parenthetical Girls started hopping, dancing, crowd surfing and getting the audience going nuts... And I mean Go Team! @ GAMH 2006 nuts.. It was a very memorable show... make sure to catch them the next time they are stateside.

Check out an interview on Above The Fold
Venuszine's recap of Paranthetical Girls
More pictures from the show on Prefixmag.com

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