I am excited that there is a TVTropes page for Los Campesinos!
I even edited it a bit to help.
That feel when your favourite band is featured on spotify among good company…except for nickelback.
Pictured counterclockwise: The show from Bowery ballroom, MHOW, Union Transfer Philly and Black Cat in DC
I saw my favourite band, Los Campesinos! on four straight nights in 3 different cities.
This was a trip planned at the last minute. I knew for damn sure I was going see them Wednesday at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan and Thursday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. I DID have tickets for their shows in Philly and DC for Friday and Saturday nights, but I wasn’t 100% if my car would even MAKE it (It’s a 1996 Jeep, and while I treat with it tender care, the gas mileage is pretty awful) On Thursday morning, I decide to somewhat hastily plan a trip via priceline hotels and megabus.com
For the shows on Wednesday and Thursday I had to move my work shift from its usual 3:30-12mid time to 7a-3:30p (My job would NOT give me time off). This mean I had to leave work on Tuesday at midnight and come back at 7am! Combine a 30-35 min commute each way, I was lucky to get maybe 4 hours of sleep each night! That also included Weds. and Thurs. nights when I drove from Manhattan/Brooklyn’s shows, getting home about maybe around 1am.
The days of work I had were weird. Constantly I was drinking some type of coffee with espresso or low carb sugar free energy drink when I didn’t feel like preparing coffee. At one point I think I was dozing off for a few seconds at a time. Then I had to drive to the shows in NYC. Usually I take the LIRR train in, but due to time constraints I had to drive.
The traffic the first night was horrible. The northern state was closed and to make matters worse my “free” gps app that was supposed to avoid traffic, lead me RIGHT into it! Regarding the second night traffic was a little bit better, but that gps app drained my iphone’s battery. That almost prevented me from taking photos during the show.
Now about the actual shows: Despite the band having almost nearly identical set lists, there seemed to be a different vibe for each show in each city.
The first night at the Bowery, the band sounded great, but they were obviously tired from jet lag. The crowd had a low type of energy from my vantage point in the middle. It was a Wednesday night crowd who probally had work/school and that was the reason.
The Second night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, I sat on the side of the stage surrounded by hipsters who folded their arms during the music. Me dancing from a second wind of energy made me eventually leave the lames there to go in the crowd. As a result from dancing very hard, I pulled my right ankle muscle a bit. Despite that I was excited for the next shows in philly and DC. Even Gareth and Neil were a bit excited that I managed to do such a thing.
The third night inphilly had me first check into a comfort inn near the franklin bridge. My hotel was approximately two miles from Union Transfer, ironically owned by the same people who owned the Bowery Ballroom and MHOW. Before the show I took a small walk toward centre city and had some terrible chicken tenders from a Chick-fil-a in a mall stuck in the 80’s. After that my ankle was still causing a bit of pain and I tried to massage it a bit in the hotel to no avail, so I decided to just take a cab.
The Philly show was better than the night before. I managed to meet up with another NYC person who made the trip and had a few beers since I wasn’t driving now. Union Transfer was a beautiful venue with excellent acoustics, my only gripe was the way they treated people alcohol. Due to ass backwards alcohol laws in the state of PA, all beer sold had to be consumed in a area of people 21 years and older. The only place beer wasn’t served was the floor near the stage. THAT meant nearly everyone there was guaranteed to be underaged. Now this wasn’t a major problem. We just had to finish our beers to enter the floor.
It was no suprise that the crowd on the floor was full of energy. There was a LOT of crowd surfing and mangled bodies. The highlight of the evening and perhaps the weekend was me screaming to gareth during the encore of “Sweet dreams, sweet cheeks”. (FYI he goes into the crowd during this song to shout the chorus) After he was leaving the cord of the mike swept my legs from under and I fell to my back. I wasn’t hurt or anything, I was actually laughing about it when the others helped me back up! During that screaming I also decided to lose my voice.
Only bad thing, after the show Kim Campesinos! was mad at me for talking about how her vocals sounded on the new record during my twitter review of Hello Sadness. :( She seemed to be a bit offended when I said that her vocals improved on The Black Bird, The Dark Slope (in her first shows after replacing alekz she sounded a bit out of place, but with the lyrics of the new material were truly “hers”). I tried to plead with her to fully explain that it was part of the first ever listen to that song and I wanted to tweet my reaction to it. Unfortunately my voice lost its command, rendering me unable to interject, and she pretty much ignored me after that. Whatever, Kim. I still love you though even though you won’t talk to me.
Onward to DC for the fourth and final night. Before the show I managed to get lost in the Metro. Due to that I was unable to have enough time to visit the Newseum. (I’m probally going to go back soon just for that) Eventually I was able to figure out the Metro system and took it to the Black Cat. It was the smallest of the venues but still rowdy enough. Except to take a picture in the front, I managed to sit in the back and enjoy the music that way. Even though I didn’t partake in thrashing, the venue didn’t tolerate crowd surfing anyway, I had a great time taking it all in whilst observing the crowd. (It’s a introvert thing, I tend to do that)
As always, except for the 1st night I managed speak to everyone in the band after the show. Gareth and me had a good convo about football, baseball and touring overall. He said they would come back as early as January or Febuary and i’m on the guest list for that show. :) That means more money for merchandise!
I adore this band and I was glad I made the choice to see the four times in a row in a weekend for a total of 10 times overall! Sadly my bank account has been ravaged and its going take me a while to recover. I’m going to be eating rice and beans for the next few weeks.
After listening to hello sadness for about 5 times.
Initially I was excited, but then I think Gareth got offended at my honest reviewing track by track on twitter. That made me listen to album a little bit closer.
I still stand by my initial assessment, it is a very strong and crafted record, but I think some long time fans are not going to like the direction that hello sadness has gone into.
Don’t get me wrong, this will be the perfect album for those rainy days or those times when you wan’t to say “fuck it” to everything, but I don’t see myself listening to this everyday beyond November.
Some may have though that “Romance is boring” was directionless at times, I didn’t think so. I loved it and it played that shit about 1000s of times. This album, there may be two or three tracks that I may listen to often. For the album in its entirety, maybe once in a while.
I’m a bit torn at saying this, but I have to take off my LC! fanboy glasses for once and be a bit critical at my favourite band.
Edit: After listening to this album over 100 times. I think it’s the album of the year. It’s a difference what a week can do. Maybe I didn’t see how beautifully crafted the songs are initially, but now I fully understand why Gareth wrote those lyrics and released the album in November.
