London Calling Report

Live Report - London Calling Friday (2011) - Holy Ghost!, Cat's Eyes, Miami Horror, and more.

It has been a while since I’ve been to London Calling. London Calling is a 2-day, twice a year festival that tries to showcase young bands. A young Editors, Franz Ferdinand, Blur, Bloc Party, Patrick Wolf all played there. I personally got my first taste there of bands like Los Campesinos!, Late of the Pier, Mystery Jets, and Foals. And I even fondly remember some bands that played there that since haven’t made the cut, but that’s all right. I used to feel excited about the new bands, and I sensed a certain excitement in the crowd to discover and hear and weigh for the first time these artists as well. On the Friday of the festival, the one day I visited it, I didn’t feel that excitement quite as much. Perhaps worse for the festival, I didn’t feel it in the crowd either, which might’ve been down to my personal musical development, but I fear it might’ve been down the programming as well.

Now, the bands. It is always an eclectic bill, and this time it is no difference. Braids tries to woo the crowd with their intricate, sensible pop. That must be what they want to play at least, but surely that what the crowd is treated to is something else entirely. Part of that though is the amazingly bad sound at the festival, which will be a downer on a lot of the gigs today. It gets so bad that I just have to leave, and I promise myself to listen to the album to get a sense of how it is supposed to sound.

In the small room Cat’s Eyes is next, and I must say it sounds pretty decent. It is a sort of mixture between a post-punk sound and a more sensible, perhaps a bit of a Western sound (or that might just pop into my head because of the train image in the background). It is Farris’s low baritone voice next to Rachel Zeffira’s more polished vocals and organ play. Some songs are more up-tempo, others are really slow. Too bad some of Zeffira (if not all) vocals and some of the structures of the songs are drowned by the second guitar. In my opinion, there is one guitar too many on the stage (and it is not the one dictating the rhythm, that’s for sure). That wall of noise doesn’t so much add as subtract from the songs in this case.

Then in the main room it is Miami Horror who is going to pop until they drop. Now, the band has got some tunes. ‘Moon Theory’ and ‘Make You Mine’ are very catchy (synth-pop) songs that can get a crowd on their feet. Terribly fun songs, too bad that the act is just not my cup of tea. I am constantly wondering if the singer is doing a parody on a pop star or is actually serious, and I am inclined to believe he is actually serious. I love over the top, I love extravagance, but  I love it with an attitude of cutting loose and lets all have a bit of fun today. The thing that I am getting out of it is more of a look-at-me vibe, and that just turns me off. So fun songs, but I rather not watch it live again to be honest as it somehow, personally, rubs me the wrong way.

Trophy Wife is a young band with lovely little pop songs, and that’s it. I can’t say anything bad about it, because the songs are nice and they are well executed and they have a rather charming demeanor. However, there is just not much that really stands out, that sets them apart, that makes me want to listen to this above other things. It is decent, nice, and charming and lovely for a small stage at a festival.

Ariel Pink is next up, and the thing about Ariel Pink is that I loved the album when it came out, then I saw the band at De Nieuwe Anita, and then not so much loved the album anymore. That was one of the worst concerts I have ever been to. So I sat down high up on the balcony, and I must admit that indeed by watching this it rekindled in me the feeling why I liked the album on the first go around. But talk about tainted vision, after that one gig I just can’t watch or listen objectively to Ariel Pink anymore. This gig was better though, no doubt about that.

And then there is The View. Now, you could tell by the crowd these lads were going to play, and that is both good and bad for the festival. It is good because it assures you ticket sales. It is bad because the vibe of that band takes over the whole festival, and that is not necessarily what one wants. Not necessarily what I want, at least. The good about The View is they can fill a (medium-sized) room. The bad about The View is that it is not cutting edge, it is not new, it is not particularly well executed, it is not really anything to me than a band with guitars and guys singing about mundane stuff. And why this crowd welcomes them as the band who is going to free punk/rock from its shackles is absolutely beyond me.

Now, after this Holy Ghost! sets up to play. So from The View you go to Holy Ghost!, and oh man, that must be terrible for that band. In a nearby venue SBTRKT and Friendly Fires are playing with The Revenge and 6^th Borough Project doing DJ sets after. Slide Holy Ghost! in there and you’ve got a killer line-up for anyone fancying a dance, anyone fancying a bit of dance pop/house/disco. Now, there are a few kids dancing, and the rest (and we are now about seven hours after tip-off) is standing there with a few too many beers rushing through their veins. So wrong crowd for this band, who I find are really good. They are tight, they’ve got some good songs with some good choruses, and it is all analog so you actually see the additional drums and stuff being played. Again, the technical side is a bit rubbish, especially in the beginning when you simply can’t hear his voice. But all in all, for the few people who are there looking for a good time and for a bit of a dance, this is lovely indeed. So hopefully next time they play with The Revenge and 6^th Borough Project and in front of a willing crowd who wants to have a good night out so that both the dancers and the band can feed off of each other. This situation is not ideal, but the band still shows why they are so highly touted, especially with closer ‘Jam for Jerry’.

Holy Ghost! (obviously) was the band for whom I was there, but whereas I used to enjoy scouring the festival for new sounds and bands, I found I wasn’t quite getting that this day. Maybe it is me, maybe it was the programming, maybe it was the crowd that consisted of the kind of people I don’t quite remember being there at previous editions. Almost surely a factor was the abysmal sound. There were some decent moments there (Trophy Wife, Cat’s Eyes, and the music of Miami Horror), but the only real satisfaction on a personal level was closer Holy Ghost!. And for a festival that runs from seven in the evening ‘till two at night that is just a bit meager to be fair.