Truly a great show by these guys last night at the Empty Bottle. They are playing there again tonight, so I recommend that you get off your arse and snag some tickets for tonight’s show and go see them if you can. These guys have been getting quite a lot of buzz this year, but it wasn’t until I snagged their album that I really got into their stuff. The album is incredibly solid, and they sure rocked many faces off last night.
Upon arrival it wasn’t entirely full, but eventually sold out from walk up tickets. Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters were up first. They were alright, I definitely liked his “low budget movie” thing, AKA showing a picture book to the audience while singing a song (notably on “Creeping Brain”). Anyway, after he had finished his set, the young lads and lasses from Wales took the stage. Before they went on however, someone went up and read a little poem for the band, but prefaced it by making reference to their great line from last year’s Lollapalooza – “Can I have a little less Amy Winehouse in my monitor?”
I had wondered how many people they would have on stage and the answer was 7, the most I’ve seen on stage at Empty Bottle. It is a tiny stage but they did damn well with it. They came out and launched into some “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” and the party was off from there. The show was extremely high energy with a lot of switching around, but everyone was in complete sync with each other and they just rocked out on every song. They hit pretty much every song off their album “Hold On Now, Youngster…” with “You! Me! Dancing!” and “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks” getting huge crowd reactions. They were totally on, and even dropped an awesome cover of Pavement’s great “Frontwards” on us, that really sounded great. They also did it on their Black Session they did on French radio. “Knee Deep at ATP”, “My Year In Lists” were awesome, as was “We Are All Accelerated Readers”. They really tore it up on stage and by the end the crowd was converted into a giant dance party pretty much. They have great songs and really play them extremely well live. Even though the band is huge it is one cohesive rock out on stage.
These guys really have all the goods and certainly deliver with their live show unlike some buzz bands (Black Kids anyone?). They are on a brief tour of the US right now, but hopefully as word gets around they will get to go on a bigger tour so more people here can check them out, because it is a really good show. They are really awesome and I’m kind of surprised they aren’t even more popular already, but I imagine that will be coming very shortly. And as I said above, they are at Empty Bottle here in Chicago again tonight, so go see it if you didn’t go last night.
And if you are on DIME, the aforementioned Black Session with Pavement cover is here in FLAC format.
Los Campesinos! Tour Dates
27 May – Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
28 May – Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theatre s/ Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters
31 May – Seattle, WA Neumo’s with Parenthetical Girls
1 June – Vancouver, BC Plaza Club with Parenthetical Girls
2 June – Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge with Parenthetical Girls
3 June – Eugene, OR WOW Hall with Parenthetical Girls
5 June – Sacramento, CA TBD with Parenthetical Girls
6 June – San Francisco, CA Bimbo’s 365 Club with Parenthetical Girls
7 June – Los Angeles, CA Troubadour with Parenthetical Girls
8 June – Pomona, CA Glass House with Parenthetical Girls
28 June – Glastonbury, Other Stage
5 July – Surrey, Redfest
11 July – Scotland, T In The Park
12 July – Canterbury, Lounge on The Farm
13 July – Dublin, Oxegen Festival info
18 July – Spain, Summercase Festival
19 July – Spain, Summercase Festival
20 July – Germany, Melt Festival
27 July – Derbyshire, Indietracks Festival info!
2 August – Manchester, A Day At The Races
3 August – Standon Calling, Main Stage Info
3 August – Hertfordshire, Standon Calling
9 August – Japan, Summersonic Festival
10 August – Japan, Summersonic Festival
15 August – Belgium, Pukklepop
16 August – Holland, Lowlands
17 August – Brecon, Greenman
Los Campesinos! – Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks – From Hold on Now, Youngster…
Los Campesinos! – We Are All Accelerated Readers – From Hold on Now, Youngster…
