Autobahn at Lock Tavern :pic by Keith Knight (after JJ Abrams)
Day two of the Camden Crawl starts in fire. It’s
blisteringly hot outside the Camden Brewery and a small crowd is sweating in
front of a tiny stage awaiting Jeffrey Lewis and The Jrams.
Jeff is in festival mood. After an extended workout through ‘Water’
he praises Letitia Sadier and leads the band through a Stereolab number. Later
on, he’ll smash through an enthusiastically haphazard version of The Fall’s ‘Cruiser’s
Creek’, with bassist Caitlin Gray doing the Brix Smith yelps.
A highlight is an impassioned version of old favourite ‘Williamsburg
Will Oldham Horror’. It’s a great start to the day.
Rather strange scenes follow at the Roundhouse Studio, whereThe Magic Lantern (musician Jamie Doe) is trying to entertain a crowd with his
sweet voice and affable folksiness. For reasons known to themselves, the venue
is now set up with rows of seating. People come through the door, can’t find
anywhere to sit, stand around awkwardly, get moved on by ushers and generally
disrupt the mood in their confusion.
I head to the Monarch for Kinnie the Explorer. They are the
first band of the day, but are so late coming onstage that I only get a chance
to nod past them as I press on to the Enterprise for Primetime.
To say these four women are shambolic would be to do them a
service. This is real old school crash bang wallop with two drummers and
frequent collapses into fits of giggles, missed intros and good natured
confusion. They are shouty and silly/serious and I like them a lot. This is
also the only gig I’ve seen temporarily stopped while a drummer decides to fix
her hair.
From here I pile into the Lock Tavern for my secondencounter with Autobahn. In this confined space it’s like sharing a room with a
Saturn V rocket.
Craig Johnson is a natural front man, expansive gestures,
full-on howling. The stage is so cramped and hot that the drummer has his
tongue out panting like a puppy and at least one of the guitarist looks set to
pass out. The band roar through tracks like ‘Ulcer’ and ‘Seizure’ and there is
nothing better in the world than being right here, right now.
After a quick break for food in Camden Market (I had the “chicken”)
it’s down to Beatrice for Farao and her band. This is a gentle Norwegian singer
and right from the off it becomes clear that this is not the best venue to
catch her. It’s all very well being wistful and sensitive in the corner, but
this is a busy pub that is full of people shouting their heads off. She’s all
but inaudible and doesn’t have the stage presence to make herself the centre of
attention.
So I head to Koko for the last half of Steve Mason’s set. He’s
bold and confident and has a real swagger. His band look as though they may
have played at Methuselah’s wedding, but with age comes experience and this is
as professional and well done as you could possibly want.
This show illustrates what may be a financial problem for
this year’s Crawl. It should be one of the biggest draws of the night, but I
doubt this big venue is even a quarter full. Whether it’s the World Cup, ticket
prices or the death of indie music, but there are very few people about. It was
even less busy on Friday.
I finish off the night in the sweltering hell hole that is
Belushi’s to catch rock trio Bad Wolf. They are very loud, very heavy and are
playing to a small, very drunk bunch of family and friends. The band aren’t
subtle, but it would be hard to find a room where people are having as much
fun.
Singer/guitarist Simon Harris has a cheerful desperation
about him. He knows that everything could collapse in chaos at any second but
will hold everything together through sheer enthusiasm. Where the band score is
that through their bombast, they have some proper tunes not least of which the
big finale ‘Bull Jazzed Up’, which sees Harris off the stage, instrument and
all, his microphone wrangled by members of the audience.
Today started in fire and ends in sweat and a puddle of
alcohol. It’s been a great Crawl. Roll on next year.
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