Kasabian leave no prisoners on final night of Camden Crawl

Saturdays Crawl started a wee bit later after the night before. More queues and busier pubs meant finding somewhere to sit down and recover a little pretty much impossible. Ending up in the one of the larger pubs, the Worlds End, there was at least enough room to breathe and work up your energy for the gigs later. On the way up to catch the first act of the night, an upside down bike, turned into a drum kit, was being played. The drum 'n' bass bike playing man was fantastic, gathering a fair crowd of admirers. Great for getting back into the spirit, the busker could easily have been on a stage playing to a bigger crowd.

Little Boots, aka Victoria Hesketh, was the first to open the Roundhouse for the night. With the hype surrounding her, its hard not to be interested in seeing her perform. The synth-pop was great and the more recently written songs stood up to her older material.

Though using her Tenori-On as more of a prop, she did bring out a stylophone to use and also played keyboards for a couple of songs. A drummer and a keyboards / synths backing band played most of the music while she sang. Looking a little nervous, she announced it was probably the biggest crowd she'd played to yet.

Following her were The Maccabees. Not knowing them well I never got into it as much as the masses of indie followers that were jumping up and down the whole time. 'Precious Time' was my favourite of the set, but more due to knowing it.


Next up were The View with their twee indie-pop. Running through their set with a little swagger, they played favourites 'Wasted Little DJs', 'Same Jeans', and more recent '5Rebeccas'. The small string accompaniment for one song seemed a little wasted as it was nearly impossible to hear them over the top of the drums and guitars.

Even so, they warmed the crowd up well for the festival headliners Kasabian. Strutting onto stage, lead singer Tom Meighan pretty much taunted the crowd to work them up. Firing into 'Vlad the Impaler', one of my faves 'Reason is Treason' then 'Shoot the Runner', they left no prisoners with the set.

With beer flying and crowd surfers crashing over the barriers, it kept you looking out for your head while enjoying the tunes. Finishing the night with 'Club Foot' I left feeling happy having heard a couple of songs from their début album.

With so many acts on at the same time, secret gigs and bigger names, the Camden Crawl looks set to keep people coming back. Not just for seeing up and coming bands but also bigger headline acts. Not a bad thing while keeping ticket prices cheaper than most 'proper' festivals.

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