SO.CO Team
Los Campesinos! Defy the Odds, Deliver Cathartic Joy at Their Biggest Scottish Show Yet
Queen Margaret Union
When Cardiff’s Los Campesinos! released their debut album, ‘Hold On Now, Youngster’ way back in 2008, it would have taken a Herculean feat of imagination to imagine they’d still be packing out student unions 16 years later. It helps that their most recent long-player, ‘All Hell’ might just be their best yet, and is helping them pick up a new generation of young fans.
The new album makes up a significant portion of tonight’s performance, but despite only having been released in July, it still features a number of tracks which have already achieved fan-favourite status, including Long Throes, A Feast of Tongues and Holy Smoke, all of which feature prominently in the 23 song set.
We’re eight songs in before frontman Gareth David apologetically pauses for breath, and asks who is seeing the band for the first time. The resulting cheer is heartening, and as David puts it “it wasn’t meant to happen like this, we were meant to drop off!” The fact that this show, at the 900 capacity Queen Margaret Union, is their biggest to date in Scotland, suggests that that theory has been blown out of the water.
The key to the band’s longevity might just be that they didn’t throw everything at being a band when the chance presented itself. By retaining their day-jobs, they’ve kept their feet on the ground. When a band has to use annual leave to go on tour, it’s no surprise that they make sure it’s worth it by giving their all every night.
The music is pure miserablist joy, focussing on Los Campesinos!’s twin themes of heartbreak and supporting dreadful football teams, with the futility and hopelessness of one reflected in the other. This is misery as catharsis though, and as the packed QMU screams back almost every word at the band, it’s clear that they have an uncanny knack of touching a nerve and revelling in shared experience with their fans. “Start a band with your mates” yells David… in Los Campesinos! it kind of feels like we already have.
Words and photos: Thomas Jackson