Los Campesinos! made their debut Dallas appearance over the weekend, and once again they did not disappoint at all. I had the fortune to catch them on their initial US tour last year at Empty Bottle and they totally killed. Once again they blew the crowd away, and while we didn’t quite get epic stage diving like Austin apparently did, we did get an incredible show.

Titus Andronicus was up first and they were pretty good. Daigle was obviously pretty keen on their album, which I haven’t heard much of, but I could hear some good stuff from the show. It was definitely very raw and punk rock-ish, their live show, and they were mixed super-loud, so it was a little hard to hear the nuances of the songs in a live setting but they made up for it with some high energy rock outs. They did have a weird ‘we hate being here’ kind of vibe to part of their show though, including them dedicating a song that repeats “Your Life Is Over” over and over again to being on tour with Los Campesinos, as well as them complaining about no one coming to their Good Records in-store (which I had no idea was even happening). Anyway, despite a little off-putting vibe at times, they were very good.

After they were done, the greatness of Los Campesinos hit the stage. Now I am glad that I managed to catch them last year because this show was a pretty even mix of new record and old record, with a lot of great songs from “Hold On Now, Youngster” not making an appearance here, as well as the absence of their great Pavement cover of “Frontwards”, which they played last time. However, that isn’t really a bad thing because the new songs off of “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” rock equally as much as the old ones, if not more.

They jumped straight into “Ways to Make It Through the Wall”, the first track on the new album, and you knew immediately it was on. They hit a nice rarity with “Tweexcore” as the second track, then continued with the new album material. They just have such a great stage presence and bring such great energy and fun to the stage that the whole crowd just has to go for it. This was certainly one of the more ‘into it’ Dallas crowds I have ever been around, even though the crowd was substantially thinner than the TNT show the night before. Surprisingly, Gareth even made reference to the Kevin Drew illness situation that had canceled the Broken Social Scene show the night before. He informed us that LC! at least showed up which got a huge roar from the crowd, as I imagine we weren’t the only people burned by that cancellation.

The new songs all sounded pretty damn good with a great version of “Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1″ with some cool “oooh, aaah” vocals by the band. “Miserabelia” and “Kayfabe” were also really solid. For the old ones “We Are All Accelerated Readers” and “This is How You Spell HaHaHa” were fantastic. “You! Me! Dancing!” once again really got the crowd going, leading into the title track from the new album, which absolutely killed, which then led to them closing with “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks” once again. It is a great closing song and really leaves the crowd on a real high note. Gareth spent half the song in the crowd singing then proceeded to get up on the monitor with everyone else in the band shouting along with him the final outro portions of the song.

Anyway, LC! made the weekend for me, and I think that would be true with or without BSS. These guys kick ass live and their songs are really incredible, so if you get a chance to see them, you really should do yourself a favor and check em out.

Setlist:
“Ways To Make It Through The Wall”
“International Tweexcore Underground”
“Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1″
“My Year In Lists”
“Please Don’t Tell Me To Do The Maths”
“Miserabelia”
“This Is How You Spell HAHAHA We Destroyed The Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics”
“We Are All Accelerated Readers”
“All Your Kayfabe Friends”
“Death to Los Campesinos!”
“You! Me! Dancing!”
“We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”
“Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks”

2009 Tour Dates:
2/03 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
2/04 – St. Louis, MO @ The Gargoyle
2/06 – Madison, WI @ Der Rathskeller
2/07 – Chicago, IL @ Logan Sq. Auditorium
2/10 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Calvin College/Ladies Literary Club
2/11 – Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center for the Arts
2/12 – Swarthmore, PA @ Swarthmore College/Olde Club
2/13 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
2/14 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
2/15 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
4/17 – Indio, CA @ Coachella

Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed – From We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed
Los Campesinos! – International Tweexcore Underground – From International Tweexcore Underground

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