Crocodiles at the Old Blue Last

Crocodiles at the Old Blue Last

17 July, 2009
by: Domzig

A weird thing seems to happen in London around July/August every year – I like to call it the Hype Phenomenon. It happens every time the festival season reaches its crescendo, sucking up half decent bands like a Vax and leaving the cities music scene a barren waste of soulful indie bands and jazzed up funk trios, who usually live in the outer reaches of East Ruislip. Pitching a half-decent band into these conditions is like throwing a chunk of meat to a half starved pack of wolves, and usually results in people going crazy and acting like it's the second coming all over again.

Not that Crocodiles are without the hype-machine's help already - far from it. A duo from San Diego, the band's song 'Neon Jesus' began slinging around the internet some time during the summer of last year thanks mainly to their friends No Age naming it one of their shredders of the year, and that was before the greater blogsphere got on board, with one US website describing them as 'The Velvet Underground swinging Jesus and Mary Chain.

The direct consequence of all this is that the Old Blue Last is a sweat box tonight, and it's Internet Forever's job to make sure everyone doesn't doze off in the heat. Standing behind their instruments like a bunch of music nerds, who then proceed to hammer through a short but fairly intense set .It's a little ramshackle, with a large break in the middle to tune a guitar, but the general positivity generated by this three-piece is enough to surmount any obstacle.

15 minutes later and two men looking they've just been at a Lou Reed look-a-like convention take the stage, surrounded by what looks like the complete peddle department of Guitar World. Opening with the aforementioned 'Neon Jesus', Crocodiles first couple of songs lack lustre, the messy, feed-back heavy guitars are all cool and that, but the drum machine lacks any oomph, removing any vestiges of dynamism from their sound and making them feel a little bit like a kiddie version of Televison.

My eyes are starting to roll back in my head, when, suddenly in the middle of the third song the drum machine splutters into life, and like a portal opening up beneath our feet, the crowd is plunged into a dark, dark world of  psychedelic fuzz guitar and pounding, half whispered vocals, and evil sounding drums. The set closes with 'I Wanna Kill' and this is where a very strange thing happens; the warm Velvet Underground weirdness slips a little bit and the whole goes a bit Bobby Gillespie, which instantly breaks the spell. It's a bit like finding out that the guy you've been hanging out is in fact 35.

Ending as enigmatically as they started, I'm left with more questions than answers – are these guys for real? Why do people keep using unreliable drum machines, and when did it become to cool to like Primal Scream again?

Crocodiles first album 'Summer of Hate' is out now on Fat Possum, and they are returning to London in August to play Barden's Boudoir.

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Domzig