Shred Yer Face Tour at Electric Ballroom

Shred Yer Face Tour at Electric Ballroom

31 October, 2008
by: Laurenevett

The 'Shred Yr Face' tour is a total misnomer tonight for a bill featuring three acts, none of which are among the most face shredding that the current music scene has to offer. Especially headliners Los Campesinos! They have spent the past couple of years giving new meaning to the word twee. It's a genre now. Thanks guys!

Semantics aside, the line up is still an exciting one. One which an Electric Ballroom's worth of people have deemed worthy of gracing with their presence. One which begins with grungy garage four piece Times New Viking. Although tonight their live performance definitely betters the limited collection of scruffy recordings the band have on offer, there still seems to be something missing from the band. There is little trace of passion, fury or excitement from the band members, especially singer and keyboardist Beth Murphy whose lacklustre performance was a long way from the chaos their recorded work suggests she is capable of.

Next up come L.A. duo No Age who've managed to pull an impressive early crowd. Sadly, the pair turn out to be tonight's second eagerly awaited yet annoyingly disappointing band. Their playing ranges from almost numbingly mediocre to, at times, fairly interesting but its their stage manner in between songs that really lets them down. To judge a band on anything other than their music often seems a bit pedantic but when listening to two grown men making jokes and drug references as pitifully embarrassing as the ones No Age are letting loose on their audience tonight, judgement has to be passed. However, after what was certainly antogonising set the band end on a positive note with an all stops pulled out performance of 'Eraser' which doesn't exactly redeem the band but could push the rest of the set into the back of at least a few enthusiastic minds.   

Finally we are arrive at the evening's main event. Los Campesinos! who are here tonight not just to shred our faces but to promote their new album 'We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed' which is boldly being released just nine months after their wonderfully received debut ' Hold On Now, Youngster'. After such a brave move the band have a lot to prove tonight and the fact that their new release dominates the show's set list shows they're confident. As you would expect the big love from the audience is saved for the snippets of classic Campesinos! that are occasionally slipped in but the new songs still see plenty of jumping, cheering and even singing along. Despite the audience's unconditional enthusiasm the band seem to have a pretty indifferent reaction and apparently just go through the motions rather than putting any real effort in. Thankfully the band have some wonderfully anthemic songs under their belts which allows the audience to enjoy themselves whatever the band's attitude.  

However you look at it though, it is singer Gareth who really lets the seven piece down tonight. His shy and unassured stage manner was certainly charming when the band were playing their first shows to around 50 people but now that the band are playing huge headline shows the act isn't convincing anyone. Especially when you apologise about having to play one more song and then triumphantly belt out  favourite 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' from the top of a speaker stack. Los Campesinos! are an talented, interesting band with some catchy and intelligent songs behind them but for a group who write about being socially inept music geeks it seems image has become far too important.


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Laurenevett