Los Campesinos! Edinburgh Liquid Rooms, March 28
It’s funny to think how long Los Campesinos! have been around for. As my +1 for the gig comments, they still seem like they’re a new band on the scene -until you realise that actually, with the release of Hello Sadness last year, they are now actually on their fourth album.
And while the Liquid Rooms isn’t sold out, nevertheless, there’s a pretty decent-sized crowd at the Liquid Rooms tonight. And watching the quite young crowd, it’s clear that Los Campesinos! do inspire devotion in fans, that there are most certaonly a number of people who do know all the words.
The reception to the title track of their new album demonstrates not just what high regard the band are held in, but also how good the band are at writing anthems. Anthems in their own image, perhaps, but anthems, none the less. And there’s a huge number of songs in their back catalogue (get yourself over to Spotify before heading off to your local record store) that you ought to know, dammit. ‘Letters From Me To Charlotte.’ ‘We are beautiful, we are doomed.’ ‘Songs about your girlfriend,’ their current single, inspires another massclapalong. ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ perhaps their best known song threatens to raise the roof.
And when Gareth Campesinos! (they all take the same surname) launches himself into the crowd during the encore of ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’, security may be shimmering with displeasure but the crowd love it.
Although still seen by many as a twee-pop act -and there’s still enough of that element to their music in 2012 -there’s a sense in which Los Campesinos! are continuing to grow -and getting ever cheekier. A great deal of fun for one night out.
