Toronto – On a hot and sweaty night, several acts plied their trade around the great town known as Toronto. Among them included ipod darlings The Fratellis and buzz band The Cribs. Having seen the Cribs, and not really interested in seeing the Fratellis, I opted to go check out the latest from the Arts and Craft label, a quirky happy rock act from Wales known as Los Campesino. Why you ask? well, it was free. How can you turn that down. Really.
I am glad that the Horseshoe has a great air conditioning system, otherwise this show would have been a lot worse (as would any show). The band came on around 10:30 (I arrived about 3 minutes prior) and instantly launched into one of their happy happy rock songs. From what I recall, they were a six piece band, including a violin player. Two of them wore truckers hat , which I think breaks some sort of fashion rule. One would later discard the hat.
Los Campesino’s music can only be described as happy happy rock. Every song is full and soaring, making use of violins, synths, xylophones and everything. I guess I would be happy too if I lived in Wales and somehow found an easy way out. The lead singers voice sounds like a mix between the guy from hefner, geneva and clap your hands. So its realtively high pitched. One of the chicks in the band provides backing vocals. I thought the band played a good set, they were very energetic and were obviously very happy to be here, despite the oppressive heat and the fact that they weren’t probably making too much money from this show.
They played about 45 minutes, and I think they exhausted everything they had in their catalogue. Highlights include their hit singles ‘you..me..dancing’ and ‘we throw parties, you throw knives’. The crowd seemed pretty into it, and I was able to get a good view and a seat, and also managed to sucker the people I was going with to go eat pho afterwards. So overall, a pretty good showing from this band. I expect the crowd to be larger next time, and they might want to charge a dollar or two.
3.5/5
