Los Campesinos! – Live

In many ways, it can be hard to think of Los Campesinos! as ‘grown up’, or even aged at all....
Los Campesinos! : Live

Los Campesinos! : Live

In many ways, it can be hard to think of Los Campesinos! as ‘grown up’, or even aged at all.  Sure, they’ve put out a bunch of albums, changed members, toured around the world, and elfin lead singer Gareth Campesinos! (QRO interview) may have put on a few pounds, but one always comes back to them as the kids behind 2007’s Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP (QRO review), the ones who sang, “That’s not blood / That’s Cherry-Aid” on “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives”.  But they’re at the point in their career where they’ve got a whole discography to draw from, not just their twee early singles, like their late period-heavy set when they came to Irving Plaza (QRO venue review) in New York on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Tom Campesinos!Neil Campesinos!Los Campesinos!’s short northeast tour was behind last fall’s No Blues (QRO review), and while there was obviously a lot of Blues in the set, what was interesting was how much the show leaned on later material from it, the preceding Hello Sadness (QRO review), and in particular the album before that, 2010’s Romance Is Boring (QRO review), which all together comprised over three-quarters of the evening.  The three most recent full-lengths having such dominance wouldn’t be a shock for many bands, but one must remember how exuberant Los Campesinos!’s break out was, first with Sticking Fingers EP and then 2008 debut LP, Hold On Now, Youngster… (QRO review).  Singles like “We Throw Parties”, “My Year In Lists”, and, of course, “Death To Los Campesinos!” were amazing – but where could they go from there?  It’s been a slow evolution, including non-album singles such as “International Tweexcore Underground”, mini-album We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (QRO review), and even some missteps, like the not-as-amazing Sadness, but it’s all been well worth it.

Kim Campesinos!Gareth Campesinos!The evening opened with No Blues’ “As Lucerne/The Low”, followed by great Sadness single “By Your Hand”, and then “Romance Is Boring” – that record of the same name was a really nice highlight of the set.  There’s a natural ebb and flow to what albums get represented on set lists: the most present is almost always the most recent one, but the most recent-but-one always gets the short shrift, going from most played in the last album tour to the least played in the next.  That had happened to Romance once Sadness came out, but now it was not only Sadness’ turn to shrink on the set list, but also Romance’s turn to grow.  This far into a career, a band can start to forget all but the singles from each not-recent record, but instead Los Camp not only gave “Romance” and the amazing “The Sea Is a Good Place To Think About the Future” (going into the encore break), but also “A Heat Rash In the Shape of the Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me To Charlotte” (where Gareth mimed out lyrics, synchronized with singer/keyboardist – and actual sister – Kim Campesinos! – QRO interview), plus “Heart Swells / 100-1” and “I Just Sighed. I Just Signed. Just So You Know” back-to-back – and “In Medias Res” to close out the night.

Jason Campesinos!Rob Campesinos!The encore of We Are Beautiful’s “Heart Swells – Pacific Daylight Time” and “Medias” wasn’t the original plan, but then drummer Jason Campesinos! (QRO interview) broke his kick pedal, and he had to use the kick pedal from opener Speedy Ortiz – which itself had broke and been replaced with LC!’s earlier in the night, but now LC!’s kick pedal was even more broken, so the encore had to be two songs light on the kick pedal, i.e. slow ones (and this was coming off of their best slow song, maybe their best song ever, “The Sea Is a Good Place”).  However, the main body of the set was certainly replete with fast songs to dance to, like No Blues’ “Avocado, Baby”, Sadness’ “Songs About Your Girlfriend”, “Heat Rash”, “We Are Beautiful”, and more – including ‘oldies’ “Death To Los Campesinos!” and “You! Me! Dancing!”  However, those two were the only two from Sticking/Youngster era, and yet the show never felt lacking in any way (okay, there might have been a few Blues songs that probably won’t make it onto set lists after the next album comes out, such as “For Flotsam” or “Glue Me”).

Matt Campesinos!Tim CroninLast year also saw the release of Los Campesinos!’s first live album, A Good Night For a Fistfight, recorded in December ’12 in London, and the NYC show couldn’t match that, their longest show ever (which was also the last with bassist Ellen Campesinos! – QRO interview – and featured a guest appearance by original singer/keyboardist, Aleks Campesinos! – QRO interview).  But Los Campesinos! have ‘grown up’ enough to have a live album, to have played Irving twice (QRO photos), to have a touring bassist (Matt Campesinos!, who for this tour not only was visiting America for the first time, but the flight there was the first time he’d been on a plane – and the train to the plane was the first time he’d been on a train!), to have someone who’ll pick up Gareth’s mikestand if he knocks it over (he was disgusted by that level of ‘rock stardom’), to complain about a late night TV performance (last time in NYC – QRO review – they played Late Show with David LettermanQRO Late Night TV Listings – and local guest horn player Tim Cronin, who only plays with them when in New York, got, “a good 20% of the camera time,” something he still wasn’t forgiven for, being stuck in the back, in darkness), to play a show of almost all later period material, and have it still be great Los Campesinos!.

Los Campesinos!

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