Camden Rocks 30/05/10 - 02/06/19
Jun. 9th, 2019 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satyricaI got back from Edale just about in time to dump my stuff and grab some food before heading out again to Heaven to see Yonaka: a couple of the Meet Up guys were there and they were being supported by The Ninth Wave, who I've seen a few times now and really impressed again; Yonaka were great too and exciting to see them getting a lot of attention- they definitely have one of the more modern sounds of the new bands that I follow, which has no doubt helped them break out in a way that even the best of the laddy guitary groups don't seem to manage. I returned to work just for the Friday and headed over to N's in the evening; everyone was about as his ex-housemate D was visiting from Bristol, who it was great to catch up with.
The weekend was Camden Rocks, now spread over two days and once again blessed by hot weather (although this also encouraged the crowds you needed to fight your way through to get between venues). It was pretty fantastic to have two days of music, stuffed with bands I like, happening half an hour from home, and made even better by both PFW andventa & ChrisC also being around, our schedules weaving in and out of each other's, as well as some familiar faces from all my gig-going. I wasn't doing too badly for major clashes this year (there were lots of maybes I didn't make it to, but only Queen Zee that I really regret missing) and it all went remarkably smoothly: I never struggled to get into any bands I wanted to see and even when it looked like I may have to rush between sets, often bands finished earlier than their allotted time meaning I didn't miss much.
I started it all off with a couple of PFW's picks, both all-female bands: at the Lyttleton Arms Marty Broke My Heart, who were pretty tight for what was apparently their first gig, albeit they outnumbered their audience at one point, then enthusiastic Japanese bubblegum-metallers Mutant Monster at the Underworld. I headed off to Dingwalls and saw just a couple of songs by King Nun before defecting to Fest to watch the whole of Asylums: they were excellent, although the crowd proved a bit unresponsive, most crucially when Luke was trying to fling himself onto them. I rushed up to the Dublin Castle afterwards where Brand New Friend's usual infectious enthusiasm was on display.
The Estevans were playing at the Hawley Arms (and pretty much everywhere this summer by the looks of things), then I watched Iridesce do some acoustic songs crammed in the tiny space downstairs at Brewdog. I grabbed some food in the market, then went to show my support for Lighthouse at Dingwalls Canalside, their third successive appearance and their crowds do seem to be growing. I then slipped down to the main Dingwalls space for first Strange Bones, who produced their usual explosion of energy, and then The Blinders, who were slightly marred by unnecessary security interventions in the crowd, despite its activities being much tamer than they had been for the previous band. After much deliberating, I did head to Frank Turner at the Electric Ballroom and was very pleased I did; he played a solo set but dragged some other musicians from the festival together to make an impromptu punk-covers band for the encore.
After the bands I headed down into town as J was over from the US for a few days. We went for a couple of drinks at the Cro Bar, which seems to be the only thing left standing round there now the Borderline has shut. The night didn't get too raucous, despite a really creepy guy fixating on the girl sat next to us that we had to get security to deal with, but it was still very late by the time I got in.
Sunday involved a pre-festival trip to the RA, as it was the last day of the Renaissance Nudes exhibition although, whilst it had some nice pieces, it was both small and seemed to rather lack substance in terms of context and exposition. I was still in Camden in time to have an incident in Black Gull Books, which I then had to spend the day lugging around the consequences of, before going to the wrong venue and watching Peterborough rockers A Story to Tell at Fest instead of the Soap Girls; luckily they turned out to be probably more up my street, so I stuck with them before heading over to Dingwalls for the Soap Girls' last few songs. We managed to join the right queue (avoiding being enveloped by the BTS fans) to see stripped-back trio Rews in the Boot Room, then headed to the Electric Ballroom for Eliza & the Bear, who played upbeat, funky guitar pop, with a very weird attempt at a Nirvana cover thrown in.
I headed up to the Camden Assembly to see Shvpes, almost entirely on the basis of the fact that I had seen their name around, and they turned out to be rap metal, lots of energy, lots of being told to stick your middle-finger up at the world. I waited around to watch False Heads, who I still think are great, then headed back to the Ballroom for festival-favourites Rat Boy, who were good although had more over-zealous security. I then went off to camp out at the Hawley Arms for the next few bands: Indian Queens had a lovely, woozy sound but the songs rather blened into one another for me; Inklings I had caught last year, research reveals he used to front a band called Fearless Vampire Hunters and he had some computer troubles; Red Rum Club I had only seen recently but are consistently great fun. I decided to end on a chilled out note and went back to Brewdog to watch Longy play his soulful, acoustic songs accompanied just by his trumpeter.
The weekend was Camden Rocks, now spread over two days and once again blessed by hot weather (although this also encouraged the crowds you needed to fight your way through to get between venues). It was pretty fantastic to have two days of music, stuffed with bands I like, happening half an hour from home, and made even better by both PFW and
venta & ChrisC also being around, our schedules weaving in and out of each other's, as well as some familiar faces from all my gig-going. I wasn't doing too badly for major clashes this year (there were lots of maybes I didn't make it to, but only Queen Zee that I really regret missing) and it all went remarkably smoothly: I never struggled to get into any bands I wanted to see and even when it looked like I may have to rush between sets, often bands finished earlier than their allotted time meaning I didn't miss much.I started it all off with a couple of PFW's picks, both all-female bands: at the Lyttleton Arms Marty Broke My Heart, who were pretty tight for what was apparently their first gig, albeit they outnumbered their audience at one point, then enthusiastic Japanese bubblegum-metallers Mutant Monster at the Underworld. I headed off to Dingwalls and saw just a couple of songs by King Nun before defecting to Fest to watch the whole of Asylums: they were excellent, although the crowd proved a bit unresponsive, most crucially when Luke was trying to fling himself onto them. I rushed up to the Dublin Castle afterwards where Brand New Friend's usual infectious enthusiasm was on display.
The Estevans were playing at the Hawley Arms (and pretty much everywhere this summer by the looks of things), then I watched Iridesce do some acoustic songs crammed in the tiny space downstairs at Brewdog. I grabbed some food in the market, then went to show my support for Lighthouse at Dingwalls Canalside, their third successive appearance and their crowds do seem to be growing. I then slipped down to the main Dingwalls space for first Strange Bones, who produced their usual explosion of energy, and then The Blinders, who were slightly marred by unnecessary security interventions in the crowd, despite its activities being much tamer than they had been for the previous band. After much deliberating, I did head to Frank Turner at the Electric Ballroom and was very pleased I did; he played a solo set but dragged some other musicians from the festival together to make an impromptu punk-covers band for the encore.
After the bands I headed down into town as J was over from the US for a few days. We went for a couple of drinks at the Cro Bar, which seems to be the only thing left standing round there now the Borderline has shut. The night didn't get too raucous, despite a really creepy guy fixating on the girl sat next to us that we had to get security to deal with, but it was still very late by the time I got in.
Sunday involved a pre-festival trip to the RA, as it was the last day of the Renaissance Nudes exhibition although, whilst it had some nice pieces, it was both small and seemed to rather lack substance in terms of context and exposition. I was still in Camden in time to have an incident in Black Gull Books, which I then had to spend the day lugging around the consequences of, before going to the wrong venue and watching Peterborough rockers A Story to Tell at Fest instead of the Soap Girls; luckily they turned out to be probably more up my street, so I stuck with them before heading over to Dingwalls for the Soap Girls' last few songs. We managed to join the right queue (avoiding being enveloped by the BTS fans) to see stripped-back trio Rews in the Boot Room, then headed to the Electric Ballroom for Eliza & the Bear, who played upbeat, funky guitar pop, with a very weird attempt at a Nirvana cover thrown in.
I headed up to the Camden Assembly to see Shvpes, almost entirely on the basis of the fact that I had seen their name around, and they turned out to be rap metal, lots of energy, lots of being told to stick your middle-finger up at the world. I waited around to watch False Heads, who I still think are great, then headed back to the Ballroom for festival-favourites Rat Boy, who were good although had more over-zealous security. I then went off to camp out at the Hawley Arms for the next few bands: Indian Queens had a lovely, woozy sound but the songs rather blened into one another for me; Inklings I had caught last year, research reveals he used to front a band called Fearless Vampire Hunters and he had some computer troubles; Red Rum Club I had only seen recently but are consistently great fun. I decided to end on a chilled out note and went back to Brewdog to watch Longy play his soulful, acoustic songs accompanied just by his trumpeter.
