Camden underworld; one of the best venues to get up close, personal and sweaty with your favourite (and probably lesser known) bands.
Playing to half full room (we’re trying to go with positives for this one) Tyler Mae took to the small stage. Never having heard of this lad/band someone kindly described him to me as a ‘middle class Dappy.’ Interesting. Whilst the music was nothing special, the band showed a lot of energy. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to save their performance for me and their last song, Butterfly, a stompy/angry sounding song sounded nearly as angry I was due to the fact I had to watch this band for a good 30 minutes too long. A highlight of their set would be when frontman, Matt Lafferty demanded to ‘see a pit, London!’ originally only having 3 people join doing what hardcore people do, two stepping, more eventually joined after witnessing one guy ‘dancing’ involving the worm and a headover heels move which got a relatively loud applause.
Next up were Tek-One, which if the swelling of the crowd during their set and the lessening of it afterwards would suggest that most had gone for their set. Had that have been me; I would have been a little disappointed for reasons I cannot exactly put my finger on. The sound cuts out a minute or so in, but doesn’t bother them as they’re soon back into the swing of their set. Hypeman Tonn Piper does his job perfectly, however it could be deemed as grating further on into their set; grinning and becoming the perfect advert for Willow Smith’s ‘Whip My Hair’ watching him becomes an exhausting task. Throughout Tek-One’s set, a mosh pit is in full swing, which didn’t have to be coaxed out of the crowd unlike Tyler Mae’s set.
Breathe Carolina finally bounce onto the stage to their electro intro and kick off with a track off their new album, Hell is What You Make It, Wooly. The duo, comprised of David Schmitt and Kyle Even, are joined by bass player, drummer and a DJ. Second song in their set is Hello Fascination which the crowd more than happily sings back to them, reaching out for the hands of Kyle who more than happily clasps them back. Every so often Kyle runs off stage and blends in with the crowd’s mosh-pit. Playing a mixture of debut, Hello Fascination, and new album, the crowd didn’t have a chance to stop dancing to the duo’s electro mix. The crowd were also treated to their cover of ‘Down’ by Jay Sean that featured on the Pop Goes Punk compilation. Every so often Schmitt donned a low slung guitar which, not surprisingly made one young girl say: “he’s got 100 xs hotter now he’s got a guitar.” Set highlight was ‘IDGAF’ which perhaps the younger audience members enjoyed the most as they got to claim ‘I don’t give a fuck’ with their middle fingers poised in the air at the demand of Even, without their parents knowing. Coming back on for an encore of ‘Birds and the Bees’ which has a few of the new fans stumbling over the words. Afterwards, throwing a peace sign up in the end and their thanks to the audience, Schmitt and Even leave the stage to cheers and applause. Even if you didn’t enjoy their set, and may I condemn you if you did’t, at least you should have enjoyed their lighting.
pictures HERE
