Reviews

It might be more than that. Perhaps it’s because they’re filled with the radiant joys of youth. Perhaps it’s the fact that the lead singer is possessed of a rear end that you could park your pint on. Perhaps it’s because their songs appear to always be treading a fine line between whimsical cuteness and downright twee sickliness.

But whatever it is, they manage to be rather despicably lovable. You want to run up to the stage and pinch their cherubic little cheeks or spit on a hanky and rub off the “PUNK YER!” message the guitarist has written on his chest in eyeliner - an effect undermined by the heat emitting from the stage lights.

Los Campesinos! (c) Grace deVille

These are ‘Happy Songs’ for ‘Happy People’, a sentiment expressed in the audience, who are all alight and aglow with sheer unadulterated joy, singing along, grabbing each other, boys running fingers through girlfriend’s hair and hugging them.

Whereas the lead singer of support band, the terribly named You Say Party, We Say Die! Was content to run around yelping and dancing clad in the kind of shiny dress that appears to be standard attire for all lead singer ladies in American bands nowadays, Los Campesinos’s modesty comes across as being rather disarming.

Here are a band who genuinely can’t believe that people have come out to see them on a Saturday night, and so put their all into giving us one hell of a show. Indie dancehall favourite You! Me! Dancing! is undisputed highlight of the night - rather ironic when you consider that an anthem admitting that you’re rather awful when it comes to cutting some rug makes people want to do just that.

Los Campesinos are not going to be the kind of band who are around forever. They’re the musical equivalent of a bag of Dolly Mixtures. You don’t mind eating a handful every now and then, but if you ate a whole bag every day, you’d be upchucking every time you saw a sugar bowl.

Instead, they are a delicious rare pleasure to be enjoyed every now and then when you want a bit of naive sweetness in your life. And it would take a very black heart indeed not to want that every so often.