Discovering (great) new music is one of joys in life. I came across Los Campesinos! through Wichicta Records mailing list which I joined because of my favourite band, Bloc Party.

I was immediately intrigued by their very normal appearance which introduced me to their insane, crazy and brilliant sort of music.

I’ve been living in London for almost 3 years now, but I only discovered them sometime during the middle of 2009. I will forever beat myself with a stick for not hearing about them earlier.

Last Thursday, I had the chance to finally see them on stage and it was one of the best experiences of my life and I am in no way exaggerating.

The venue was once again Koko in Camden. It was another rainy evening in London, so 10 minutes till the doors opened, there was still no queue. At this point, I was 4th in the queue but the place quickly filled up as the evening moved forward.

Two support acts offered a mix bag of surprises prior to Los Campesinos!.

The first was Islet which as mentioned by LC! on their twitter page is the best band you’ve never heard about. This is very much true. At first, their sound seemed a bit too crazy (there is such a thing) but it quickly grew on me and I soon found myself really enjoying what they were doing on stage. They are a four-person band and for each song they seem to swap all their instruments around. My memory is a bit hazy now but I am pretty sure no one member used the same instrument on more than 2 songs. They were that great! Sadly,they hardly have an online presence at the moment but there is a BBC recording on one of their fan sites.

They were followed up by Swanton Bombs which were a two-person act quite similar to The White Stripes except their both men. An ok band but I felt they were trying to sound too much like The White Stripes.

And then, it was time for Los Campesinos! Before we go into the details, I’ll bore you with a short story (not that anyone really reads this).

At work, it was known that I was going to a gig and a colleague of mine asked if there was going to be any mosh pits. I reply by saying probably not.

Boy was I wrong. As soon as LC! came up on stage, the crowd went crazy and everyone started dancing around and moshing.That is, everyone from where I was. This was of course different from the hurtful circle pits at hardcore rock events and this was so much more enjoyable with everyone singing and dancing around. I never thought I could sweat so much here in February before this gig.

The energy levels never settled down and the band kept the crowd on their feet from start to finish.

Since this was the tour for their latest LP, Romance Is Boring, most of the songs came from this album which is actually quite goo since it is a great record.

Hightlights of the evening would be You! Me! Dancing! which was absolutely insane and The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future when everyone was singing the song. Also, Straight in at 101 with the most genuis bit of lyrics ever:

“I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock.
Feels like the build-up takes forever but you never get me off.”

Oh, and of course, This Is How You Spell, “HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics” which along with Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks were part of their “encore”.

Here’s what I remember of the playlist;

• Heart Swells/100-1
• i just sighed. i just sighed, just so you know
• Death To Los Campesinos!
• Miserabilia
• A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State Or, Letters From Me To Charlotte
• There are Listed Buildings
• Romance Is Boring
• Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown # 1
• We’ve Got Your Back
• My Year In Lists
• Straight In At 101
• This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind.
• You! Me! Dancing!
• We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
• The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future
• Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
• This Is How You Spell, “HAHAHA, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics”

The 8-piece band was absolutely amazing. They played each song with the same intensity as the last song. As you watched them on stage, you could clearly see they were really enjoying themselves.

This was the most fun gig I have been to in quite sometime. I would have loved to take more pictures or a video even, but I was having too much fun and decided to pocket the camera and just sing and dance along with everyone.

I say this a lot, but this is another band I will definitely be seeing again. And again. I can’t wait for them to play in London again. They currently wrapped up their UK tour and now have a long US tour lined-up. I thought about it but may just wait until they are back.

It is a real shame that I have not had the chance to see them before.

“It’s you! It’s me! We’re dancing!”

Cobra Starship is a guilty pleasure of mine (pun not intended). They have quite a different brand of music that I typically listen to.

I first heard of them prior to seeing them at GIAN 2008 as they were listed as one of the bands on the bill. Saw them again in 2009 at King’s College in London which is the best show of theirs which I’ve been to.

This was way before a Gossip Girl joined then for a song after which, they shot up in popularity.

This popularity was quite evident when I arrived at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, just a few minutes before the doors opened. I was greeted to a massive queue which is pretty much non-existent for previous gigs I’ve been to at O2 Empire.

Luckily, I am with O2 and was able to jump the queue by using the O2 customer’s priority entrance. This marked the first time I used this perk and was glad I had it as it was freezing cold outside.

The first support band was Plastiscines which is an all female band from France. By female, I mean girls as in teens. One could swear that they were plucked right out of Gossip Girl being pretty, slim, sexy and all. It was fun watching them especially this moment when the bassist tripped on stage. As for their music, their wasn’t anything real special about it.

Family Force 5 was the second support band and they came up on stage wearing the same shirts. Their music belongs to genre called Crunkcore (screamo+crunk) which I had no idea ever existed. Most of the crowd loved them. Their stage presence and energy was pretty remarkable. Not my cup of tea though.

It eventually came to Cobra Starship’s turn. They were mostly their usual selves except for Gabe being way too chatty. He talked so much between songs. Some of it were stories he already told in previous gigs which made the experience even more painful. As a result, their setlist was only 14 songs. With less talking, they could have squeezed in 2-3 more.

• The City Is At War
• Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous
• Nice Guys Finish Last
• Kiss My Sass
• My Moves Are White (White Hot ,That Is)
• Wet Hot American Summer
• The Church of Hot Addiction
• Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I’ll See You in Hell (Hey Mister DJ)
• Smile For The Paparazzi
• Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)
• Hot Mess
• Guilty Pleasure
• The Scene Is Dead; Long Live The Scene
• Good Girls Go Bad

An interesting moment was during Snakes On A Plane’s rap portion where they asked two members of the crowd to come up on stage and rap the stanza out. It was pretty cool.

Like at King’s College, I was hoping they would play “The World Has Its Shine (But I would Drop It on A Dime)” but they didn’t My guess is it’s too slow a song for their usual uptempo sets.

To sum up, although it was really good, it was not the best Cobra Starship show I’ve been to. This honour still goes to King’s College. Everything was simply better there including the support bands. Also, King’s College was a much smaller venue.

At the moment, I think after seeing Cobra Starship thrice, I’ve had my fix and it is quite unlikely I’ll be seeing them again lest be subjected to the same stories Gabe will eventually blabber on about. Still, they are a guilty pleasure of mine, and if the stars do align, I may just see them again.

I liked Brand New but was not the biggest fan in the past and sort of missed out on tickets when this gig was announced. Then I heard Glassjaw was supporting and felt quite gutted. Back then, standing tickets were already sold out and only seats were available. Since Glassjaw was only supporting and sitting down is no way to watch them, I thought I was not missing out much.

Less than a month before the gig, they released more standing tickets and I immediately jumped in and ordered my ticket. This impulsive nature has equated to me being quite broke at the moment but I have no regrets as this gig was one of the best this year.

Oh wait, 2010 just started.

The venue was Wembley Arena which is completely different from Wembley Stadium but is right next to each other. This is were I saw The Cure back in 2008 with a bunch of old people. Yes, The Cure.

Braved the chilly weather and the lack of the Jubilee Line (it was a Saturday) to get in the queue pretty early. From what I remember, I didn’t buy anything to drink and went straight to the front and sat down.

There were two support bands, Glassjaw and Thrice. Having two support bands instead of one makes the wait, from entering the venue to the first band and in between acts, more bearable. As you know, I go to concerts alone and barely talk to anyone.

Thrice was the first support band on stage. They were alright but I could never get into them even though I’ve given their albums Artist In The Ambulance and Vheissu several listens to.

I was here mainly for Glassjaw and was really excited when they got up on stage. Daryll was his usual crazy and insane self. Justin Beck had his trademark look on, hoodie and cap all throughout their set. Their intensity at the start was not so great though but it built up midway. This marked the 3rd time I’ve seen Glassjaw live and I have to say this had the best performance of Ape Dos Mil ever. Plus, this was the closest I have been watching them without getting crushed as most of the crowd had no idea what was going on.

As for their set, they played 7 songs : Tip Your Bartender, Mu Empire, (You Think You’re) John Fucking Lennon, El Mark, Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, Ape Dos Mil and Siberian Kiss.

Now Brand New. As mentioned, I’ve listened to them and liked them in the past but never the biggest fan. This changed in the weeks leading up to the gig as I was playing Brand New over and over again while at home, at work and driving to the office. Now, I can’t get enough of them.

Back to the gig. After Glassjaw, the front got crowded and packed as hell. It got so bad that when Brand New started, you could barely move. Instead, you would move with the crowd. This was not enjoyable so I managed to back away from the front just a bit into an area where you could actually move and dance by yourself.

As you can gather, Brand New was pretty intense and started out as such. Their setlist was a great mix of songs from their four albums and really had the crowd in the best mood all throughout the evening.

I was particularly impressed with the bits where Jesse would do guitar solos and sing by himself. I’m not a musician so I am easily impressed.

Here’s the setlist from the ever reliable Setlist.fm.

• Welcome To Bangkok
• Sink
• Degausser
• You Won’t Know
• Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t
• Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades
• The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
• Limousine
• Vices
• Gasoline
• Sowing Season
• You Stole
• The Archers Bows Have Broken
• Jesus Christ
• Jude Law And A Semester Abroad
• Seventy Times 7
• At The Bottom
• Play Crack The Sky

It has been a few weeks since the gig (Note to self: write these reviews a few days after and not weeks) and I’m playing still playing the songs back in my head. It was a great show and among the craziest I have been which is always great. This is not because of Glassjaw alone but Brand New as well.

Personally, I think I (try to) listen to too much music and due to this, drowned out bands and acts I would have really loved. Brand New is a victim of this and I am glad I got standing tickets to this gig at the last minute.

Here’s a video of Brand New performing Jesus Christ.

What a way to kick off 2010!