Listening to Los Campesinos! is a fun and exhausting experience. The band never lets up in any of their songs; even the sad ones sound like high energy pop anthems that you want sing along to. Their live performances are no different, with gleeful crowds singing along to frontman Gareth Paisey as the band moves around the stage. Their performance at the Bluebird last night was just as full of that hyper, exhausting happiness they are known for.
Opening up with hits "By Your Hand" and "Death to Los Campesinos!," the set consisted mostly of songs from their newest album, "Hello Sadness." Before this set, I felt like that album was their weakest, but seeing the songs performed live completely changed my opinion. Every song sounded fuller, and seeing the energy the whole band puts into it changed them into sing-alongs about heart break. The crowd further intensified this.
Attendance was extremely small and there was a fair amount of space between people. It wasn't noticeable from the front, though, where fans were singing, clapping, and head banging along. Nowhere in the set did the crowd feel more at complete harmony than when the band performed their biggest hit, "You! Me! Dancing!".
The song begins with a slow, steady build up of noise. The band milked this for all it was worth, and the crowd starting going nuts as the pace of the drums kept building and building before everyone burst out moving when the song started.
Just before it, Paisey mentioned that opening act Parenthetical Girls had given Campesinos! crap about the song. Paisey was a quotable machine with everything he said between songs turning into a infectious laugh - particularly the comments about the Bluebird's sound man departing without telling them, leaving their sound man Paul to do everything. He mockingly pleaded the rest of the set for Paul to get paid the sound man's wage.
"You guys are watching a Los Campesinos! band practice right now," he joked.
Paisey's whole energy, between dancing around the stage and running into the crowd during the encore, was the highlight of the show. You couldn't look at his constant moving about without wanting to join him yourself.
The choice of the Bluebird, a 21+, felt a little strange at first since Los Campesinos! have a sound that appeals to a wide range of ages, including adolescents. The whole show though was like being a teenager again: dancing around, singing along and feeling at one with the music. It's a pretty crazy feeling, and after last night, its hard to imagine any band doing it better.
Post by Mikel Kjell; Photography by Steven Arroyo
