I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 17. 2024] Los Campesinos!

I have been a fan of Los Campesinos! (who are actually Welsh) since their debut album.  But I have never seen them live.  I missed the 2022 show because our postponed Ben Folds concert was rescheduled to this evening.  Bummer.

I didn’t really follow them much after their first couple of albums, but their overall vibe hasn’t changed dramatically over the years.  They write funny, literate songs about loss disguised as really catchy scream along type anthems.

Singer Gareth David Paisey has a yelling kind of voice that is really fun to get behind.  (Util this year all of the band members used Campesinos as their last name, but now they acknowledge their actual names.

I had always thought they were a totally under the radar band.  But I was shocked to see how many people were at this show, in particular how many younger people were at this show. I mean, where do you hear about Los Campesinos! in 2024?  But everyone there knew all the words and shouted along.  It’s also fun to realize that most of the band has been with them since the beginning and the newer people are all in the band over ten years by this point.  Pitchfork describes their fan base

emo-curious indie adults, indie-curious emo kids, DIY scenesters and Genius annotators, avid consumers of hard cider and hard-left politics, obsessives of European football and American Football alike.

The new album All Hell is just as good if not better than their others.  The lyrics are still wordy and verbose with words like selenograph and phrases like “a cavalcade through antemortem, terminal suburban boredom.”  If these words appeal and you can imagine more or less screaming them over catchy melodies, then this is the band for you.

They’ve only put out seven albums (and various EPs) in the last sixteen years and they played songs from all of them.  And they comfortably mix in old “classic” songs like Romance is Boring at the beginning of the show with newer songs like Avocado Baby:

Oh, it won’t get better
That doesn’t mean it’s gonna get any worse
You’ll finally draft a life-long love letter
Signed to the man who will be driving your hearse

..

A heart of stone, rind so tough it’s crazy
That’s why they call me the avocado, baby

By your hand is the only end I foresee,
I have been dreaming you’ve been dreaming about me

What’s fun about seeing them live is that the crowd seems to sing along to every word and it feels like when the bands sings along to certain parts–like a riotous gang chanting these intense words.

The rest of the band isn’t especially active during the show.  Bassist Matt Fidler and Drummer Jason Adelinia hang in the back making sure the chaos doesn’t fall apart.  There’s an assortment of guitars and keys played by Neil Turner, Tom Bromley, and Rob Taylor.  And up front with Gareth is Kim Paisley who sings the occasional lead vocal (like on kms) and plays keys and flute.  They’re a big band and they make a big sound.

I know their songs from 2006-2008 best and they obliged by playing a big chunk from that era near the end of the set.  Straight in at 101 is a masterpiece of self-pity.  I loved watching Kim play flute and keys and sing during the “Heart Swells/100–1” “I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know” suite.  You wouldn’t think that a song like “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” would have a grooving bass line, but does it ever.

And amazingly people were singing along to all of these songs.

After a brief encore break they came back for three more songs, including the absolutely wonderful You! Me! Dancing!

I am so glad that I finally got to see them live and I’m thrilled for them that so many people love them, because it means they’ll come back again soon.

1. A Psychic Wound ψ
2. I Broke Up in Amarante §
3. Romance Is Boring ♥
4. Avocado, Baby Ø
5. By Your Hand ¢
6. What Death Leaves Behind Ø
7. Allez les blues ∞
8. Feast of Tongues ψ
9. Hello Sadness ¢
10. For Flotsam Ø
11. kms ψ
12. Here’s to the Fourth Time! §
13. Straight In at 101 ♥
14. Knee Deep at ATP ⊕
15. My Year in Lists ⊕
16. Heart Swells / 100-1  ♥
17. I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know ♥
18. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed ♦
19. The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future ♥
20. 0898 HEARTACHE ψ
    encore
21. Cemetery Gaits Ø
22. You! Me! Dancing! ⊕
23. Baby I Got the Death Rattle ¢