More on: Ida Maria

Date: 19/04/08
Rating:

Slightly bewildered but recharged, and back to fight on another day, it was time to learn from past mistakes and make sure that there was a plan that even The A-Team's Hannibal would have been proud of.

It was off to the Tommy Flynn's, where Weekender Records were hosting an unofficial leg of the festival. They opened their doors to any punter to showcase all their favourite bands and provide shelter from the early afternoon's downpour. So with one eye on Language, a three-piece glam act, and one eye on the day's line-up, it was time to make the hard choice of which bands to see and miss before the end of the day.

Before long SixNationState were on stage and the place was packed to the rafters (though a few were actually enjoying the football), the band commented on how it was the best L-shaped crowd they had played to, and boy did the crowd lap them up, playing their ska influenced indie. An audacious version of 'Everybody Wants To Be My Friend' impressed a crowd made up of a new audience and it was hard to see why this band were not playing a bigger venue and on a lot later than 3pm in the afternoon.

A trip to The Roundhouse ensued and a taste of the rock cinema they had on offer. Inside the doors lay over 50 patient spectators, watching in interest at the bizarre event - a live band perform to artistic visuals, such as a skinny teen, dancing erotically into the mirror with a belt. Interesting and pretentious, but it's the sort of odd entity that you come to expect from Camden.

The first major act of the day was the return of Duels, playing tracks from their upcoming album 'The Barbarians Move In' at The Crescent. After a 45 minute wait outside the venue, we see Duels finally take to the stage. A whole new direction and line up, they played it tough, sticking to the new darker material they seemed desperate to play live. The band seem re-energised and although the sound was poor, to hear 'Sleeping Giants' and 'Regeneration' live for the first time - in such close quarters - was the highlight of the weekend so far.

Across the road to Koko where Make Model were halfway through their set, bizarrely without any queue to get in, so the venue is half empty. Entering I found a drunk nu-rave massive lumbering around in whacky hats and shades, missing out on a genuinely exciting performance. It didnt matter what they did on stage, as the majority talked over them. A shame since the Glasgow sextet offer a great mix of Kasabian-esque electro rock. After they played new single 'The LSB', it was time to leave the fair-weather fans and see one of the big names of the day in Ida Maria.

After waiting an hour outside Dingwalls, and still feeling frustrated over all the other bands that couldn't be fitted in, it was time for the Scandinavian goddess to play her second performance of the weekend. Being front row, it's easy to see how she has such a reputation. As soon as she stumbles on stage in her red heels, with her set list tattooed in onto her arm, she screams charisma. She's a hybrid of Bjork and Iggy Pop, and certainly knows how to please her audience. Performing a rip-roaring set of only nine songs, she starts off slowly with 'Morning Night' and 'Louie' then tears up the house with a one, two punch of 'Forgive' and a stunning rendition of 'Oh My God'. Ida encourages us to sing into the mic, encourages the Dingwalls crowd to go insane, pushing over speakers and sending frightened teenage girls flying like some human tornado. Ida covers herself with bottled water and lies flat down on the stage, allowing her band to lap up the admiration, before she musters enough strength for one more chorus, and she's gone.

Without out a chance in hell to get into see The Wombats at the Electric Ballroom, off to Kentish Town to catch M83 playing at The Bullet Bar. With ten minutes until show time, I managed to push to the front in anticipation to see Anthony Gonzalez and co. perform tracks from their great new album 'Saturday's Youth'. When there's still no sign of the French electro pioneer, the crowd starts to get restless and when their tour manager announces there are a few technical difficulties, a wave of tension passes over the bar. Further investigation lead me to find out that they have stupidly left their hard drive with all their backing tracks and sounds back home in France. After some persuasion, Anthony enters the stage to a massive cheer, but then performs three random keyboard experimentations. The audience does its best to get into it, but as soon as some members find themselves slipping into the 'robot' dance, M83 have reached curfew and to a chorus of boos an embarrassed Anthony Gonzalez bowed out of the Camden Crawl. Another hit and miss day, but the hits out weighed the misses and singing into the mic with Ida Maria is surely a bonus.

Francis Jolley

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