| Los Campesinos! @ the Bowery Ballroom | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 21 May 2008 08:52 | |||
Los Campesinos! and their opening band, Titus Andronicus, don’t share much besides a rise to fame fueled by effusive praise from certain taste-making Internet outlets. The former is a cute, mixed-sex Welsh septet who rock out on the glockenspiel, the latter a bunch of hairy guitar-wielding dudes from Glen Rock, New Jersey.  Yet despite the mismatched bill, both bands gave performances so large and overwhelmingly energetic it seemed that the stage at the Bowery Ballroom could barely contain them (and not just because Los Campesinos! Has seven members). Perhaps that's the reason why singer Gareth Campesinos chose to open the show, starting with the yearning "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats," from the middle of the crowd. That crowd, matching the band in youth and enthusiasm, followed along knowing every word. The band only has one full-length album, Hold On Now, Youngster, which made up the bulk of the set list. But when they dipped into previous EPs for the catchy "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives," Campesinos looked into the audience and crooned, "I'll sing what you like if you shout it straight back at me." At the time, it seemed less like a lyric and more like a prognostication. Words by Marisa LaScala. Picture by Grace DeVille.
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