We've Got Your Back

After a long weekend of hanging with the family, I ventured into Cambridge Sunday night to hang out with Senor Breitling. We did some recording for the next episode of CompCon and then headed over to the Paradise to check out Los Campesinos!, yet another terrific young Scottish band.

The show was originally supposed to happen Saturday night, but the band was stuck in Europe for nearly a week because of the Icelandic volcano ash situation and had to cancel the first six nights of its North American. We were lucky they only postponed it by a night. Right from the start, you could tell the eight-piece LC was full of pent-up energy; frontman Gareth was bouncing around the crowded stage like a pinball, occasionally returning to the mike to sing and play some xylophone (Correction: Glockenspiel).

The show was far from a sellout, but those who attended had a blast. We hung out on the balcony, which was fairly spacious, but the floor was pretty crowded with LC devotees who shouted out the lyrics and pogoed away furiously. I'm only familiar with the band's latest album, Romance is Boring, technically their second full-length (although they've also released a 10-song "EP"). LC ripped through several new songs, including the title track and "There Are Listed Buildings," in their 70-minute set. During the encore, most of the band waded into the crowd to perform the song, leaving only the rhythm section and keyboardist on stage.

We also met up with Bryan Hamill, proprietor of the fine blog The Ash Gray Proclamation, whom Jay had befriended via Twitter. A good guy and as it turns out, a runner who did the Providence Marathon last year.

Jay and I got to the club just in time to see Cymbals Eat Guitars, a Staten Island band who played a sharp 40-minute set of atmospheric guitar-driven jams. Good stuff that I want to check out some more.

As we headed out into the night, we remarked that while we certainly would have welcomed a few more songs from LC, we were okay with getting out of there at a relatively decent hour on a Sunday night. And we certainly weren't shortchanged on the rock. Los Campesinos! is a band well worth your time and cash money.