Good Weather For Airstrikes

FIXED: Updates to resume when university stops shitting on me.

My first-ever Camden Crawl experience totally ruled. Here’s why:

SAM SPARRO (Electric Ballroom, 6 PM)

We kicked things off at one of two 6 PM offerings, hitting the legendary Electric Ballroom to see Sam Sparro’s first-ever London show. His debut single “Black & Gold” went supernova seemingly out nowhere and currently sits at #3 on the charts so this was an understably hot ticket, the packed house a resounding testament to this fact. While I’ll admit the single is catchy as fuck, I’m definitely not his biggest fan, but my friends we’re jonesing for their Sparro fix so I went along with it hoping for the best. Turns out dude puts on a damn good live show. The flamboyant Aussie took the stage looking like a party pix all-star in sparkling gold tights and an oversized tribal-print top, before cruising through a set of future chart hits and keeping the crowd bouncing throughout. Don’t get me wrong, shit was like, super gay, but Sparro’s a top notch performer and the crowd loved every minute of it. Those of you who’ve been waiting for the next Jamiroquai listen up, Sam Sparro’s your man.

MP3: “Black & Gold” (Phones’ As Hard As Diamonds Edit) - Sam Sparro

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? (Koko, 7:20 PM)

From the Electric Ballroom we made our way down the high street towards Mornington Crescent, where Does It Offend You, Yeah? were set to take the NME-sponsored stage at Koko at 7:20. I’d not yet seen them do their thing in a live setting, and to say I was pumped would be an understatement. Fortunately they didn’t disappoint, rocking the perfect medium of punk and electro and putting on the first epic show of the weekend. There was dancing, there was moshing, and there was definitely no shortage of drinks flying through the air. My 6′3″ stature makes me a kind of lightning rod for that shit and I left the venue sufficiently drenched in beer, sweat and assorted other bodily fluids, but it was all good - Does It Offend You, Yeah? fucking slayed.

MP3: “Doomed Now” - Does It Offend You, Yeah?

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE (The Crescent, 8 PM)

Leaving the ridiculousness of Koko behind us, we crossed the street to the Crescent to see the inimitable Florence and her machine. I’d been awed by her uncanny vocals and stage presence on a few occasions last summer back when it was still just Flo and her guitarist, but now the line-up had expanded to include a drummer as well. The added intensity of live percussion really took her show to a new level, and it was easily the best performance I’d seen her put on to date. We missed the amazing “Girl With One Eye” and her cover of Beirut’s “Elephant Gun” waiting in the interminable line outside the packed pub-turned-venue, but her set was amazing regardless, the rollicking “Kiss With A Fist” rounding out her set in triumphant fashion and more than making up for the tracks we missed. That track, her upcoming debut single, will at long last see a release on Moshi Moshi June 9th (backed with a brilliant cover of “Hospital Beds”, no less), and from there it’s only a matter of time before she’s taken over this entire London folk scene.

MP3: “Girl With One Eye” - Florence & The Machine
MP3: “Going Down” - Florence & Kid Harpoon

LYKKE LI (Black Cap, 9:15 PM)

One of the more hyped shows of the weekend was Lykke Li’s 9:15 slot at the Black Cap just a few blocks up from The Crescent, and the place was absolutely packed. Florence and her crew were there, along with a few hundred other eager onlookers, and finding standing room was no easy feat to say the least. We’d seen her before at February’s Chocolate Rain night at Cafe Mahiki and thus were totally ready for her adorable stage presence and fly-ass moves, but this was far better than her previous showing. The sound was an issue at Mahiki, but everything was perfect for Lykke’s Black Cap gig. She played all the hits - “Little Bit”, “Let It Fall”, “I’m Good I’m Gone”, et. al - and proved why every single person in this fucking industry is absolutely shitting themselves over her. I said it back in November and I’ll say it again, this girl will be huge.

MP3: “I’m Good. I’m Gone.” - Lykke Li

SOKO (The Crescent, 10:30 PM)

The only letdown of the day may have been Soko’s performance at the Crescent rounding out our European female singer-songwriter trilogy. It’s not that she was bad, far from it in fact, it’s just that it’s still quite early in her career and her live show doesn’t seem to be quite there yet. Furthermore, her charm lies in the quirkiness of her endearing vocals and lyrics, and the less-than-ideal sound and buzzing crowd made it difficult to here in the packed Crescent. Thus, we rolled out after three or four songs, figuring we might as well try to see Robyn across the street despite the slim chances of gaining admittance into Koko for one of the most popular shows of the entire festival.

MP3: “I’ll Kill Her” - Soko

ROBYN (Koko, 12:30 AM)

Surprisingly, we made it into Robyn with remarkable ease, and after a brief wait in line we found ourselves at the front of the venue ready for the sugary girl-pop experience of a lifetime. Now, I’ll be real with you: I was way drunk at this point, which is the kind of thing that happens when you’ve been drinking for six-and-a-half hours on a half-full stomach, and my memory of her show isn’t exactly crystalline. What I do know, however, is that she totally dropped “Sexual Eruption”, which pretty much made my life. I also remember realizing just how many chart-toppers this girl’s put together on one album of new material and being a little bit awestruck, but I guess that wasn’t exactly a secret or anything. Either way, I’m pretty sure I had the time of my life and it was a perfect ending to what was probably my best day in London so far.

MP3: “Sexual Eruption” (Fyre Department Remix ft. Robyn) - Snoop Dogg
MP3: “Who’s That Girl” (Styrofoamkid Remix) - Robyn

So there you have it, unbelievably good times. I wasn’t able to go Saturday, as my bank account is in the red (please donate drug money at the PayPal link above kthx) and the only band I was really dying to see was White Lies, and that can wait until the Great Escape for now.

OH and how ’bout those Caps? Four straight goals last night (including two from Alex Wale Ovechkin) at Philadelphia to tie up the series at 3-3 and bring game seven back to the Chocolate City? Fuck yeah.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Live Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.