More on: We Are The Physics

Date: 18/04/08
Rating:

It was a nasty, blustery Friday night in Camden for the opening of 2008's Camden Crawl, which would make queuing misery. And queues there were, with the huge amount of bands playing a large amount of venues over a relatively short amount of time - 6pm-11pm. Even with a guest pass, only four bands were witnessed tonight, but that was due to two factors - a) no staggering of the times (to be moaned about later) and b) The excellence of tonight's acts meant you couldn't drag yourself away to bar-hop.

Kicking off Friday night in Koko were Does It Offend You, Yeah?. Even in their incredibly early slot, the band managed to take charge of the biggest venue in the crawl and wound the crowd into an insane frenzy. Natural party-starters, they got the entire ground floor jumping in unison, beer flying everywhere. Morgan, inbetween being a natural frontman, took five minutes for a political party broadcast - "don't vote Boris on May 1st!" The set ends with a riotous 'We Are Rockstars', and it's apparent we may have seen one of the highlights of the weekend in the first half hour. Impressive.

It's a stroll across the road to the Purple Turtle after the mass exodus post-DIOYY. A massive queue was waiting to see the hotly-tipped Post War Years, and squeezing in, you can see why. The young quartet look like a twee floppy-haired indie band, but then manage to nearly blow the windows out armed with two korgs, which two of the guitarists take turns in playing. The ensuing racket was trying for a Rapture-esque quality, but while they get top marks for enthusiasm and presence, the tunes need working on.

Now this is where the time-slot whinging comes in. Having spoken to Let's Wrestle in the day, there was an itching to see if their dry wit came across in their music. Thing is, they were also playing at the Purple Turtle, and as the whole of Camden Crawl had its half hour band break at the same time, there was no point leaving to go anywhere else inbetween. The 30 minutes of thumb-twiddling was well worth it though, as Let's Wrestle were the find of the weekend. The teenage trio rip through a set riddled with sarcastic gems with the nonchalance and the ear for melody of The Cribs - a deadly combination.

There was only one band that night that was a definite on our list, and that was Glasgow quartet We Are The Physics headlining the Dublin Castle. Frontman Michael (one of three Michaels in the band) may come across as the bastard son of David Byrne and Alex Kapranos, but WATP are one of those live bands where all members are involved in the spectacle. The tracks from the forthcoming debut album are born to be heard live, and the tightness with which frenetic numbers such as 'You Can Do Athletics, BTW' are played is frightening. The chemistry between the band and the fun and games on stage are infectious and while they don't yet have the London fanbase to create riots in the crowd, it's clear this is just the beginning of something special.

Becky Reed

We Are The Physics Official Site
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