Death in Vegas - Camden Crawl 2012 review
'An excellent taster for the festival'
Photographer:Jim Stewart
Chris Eustace - 06 May 2012
Camden Crawlers looking to kick things off early got their chance on Friday afternoon. 10 minutes up the road at St. Pancras Station, Clock Opera headed up the Station Sessions Camden Crawl takeover, playing to Crawlers and commuters alike, before the Opening Party at Koko kicked things off officially.
Funeral Suits’ sprightly electro-tinged indie-pop was the first treat for the earliest of earlycomers, with stand-out songs ‘All Those Friendly People’ and ‘Colour Fade’ suggesting a sparser, more world-weary Two Door Cinema Club (7.5/10).
Next up was Echo Lake’s shimmering shoegaze, with woozy melodies and Linda Jarvis’s vocals recalling 80’s indie heroes like The Cocteau Twins, or during their more epic moments, suggesting that we could well have our very own Beach House on our hands (7/10).
Laptop-pop duo Icona Pop bounded onstage to up the pace with some high-energy catchy tunes, culminating in a closing three-song salvo of single ‘Nights Like This’, a swaggering ‘Top Rated’ and a new song, which if it isn’t called ‘Ready For The Weekend’, really, really should be. With Skrillex-styled helium-pitched vocals, techno glitches and snapping drums, expect to hear it on the radio far too much very soon.
Engine-Earz Experiment (8/10), meanwhile, are not messing around. Taking advantage of a swelling crowd, they take the opportunity to show why they’ve become such festival favourites with a ground-shaking set. MC Data prowls the stage, promising “real live bass music,” as the live dubstep collective get hands in the air. ‘Shadow People’ is almost as furious as prime Prodigy, and they’re clever enough to include some subtler sounds, such as the more delicate ‘Reach You’ to avoid the set becoming one-dimensional.
Despite their seven years away, it seems like there’s plenty of people who haven’t forgotten about Death in Vegas (8/10), and Richard Fearless has every reason to look pleased as he and his backing band take to the stage in a hail of spotlights, which stream the stage throughout.
Having headlined the Electric Ballroom down the road last November following the release of comeback album ‘Trans-Love Energies’, NW1 is obviously friendly territory for DIV, and the ornate venue is packed for this one, with Fearless taking to the mic to thank the crowd before the band launch into a slinky version of ‘Your Loft, My Acid.’
With a largely instrumental set tonight, Fearless lives up to his name, eschewing some of his best known songs, with no
place for the likes of ‘Dirge’, ‘Dirt’ or ‘Aisha’, but there
is room for a euphoric ‘Hands Around My Throat’ and a closing ‘Rekkit’, its harsh, distorted start
giving way to pulsing synth and pounding drums.
Hits or no hits, it was an excellent taster for the next two days,
and with all the acts, bar Death In Vegas, set to play again over the weekend, you could well find one or two of them amongst
your new favourites once your head clears.
Click here for all our coverage live from Camden Crawl over the weekend, and to get all the latest updates follow Virtual Festivals on Twitter and Facebook.
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