03 June 2017 (gig)
07 June 2017
There are not many areas, around any city, that are more suitable for hosting a music festival than Camden Town. Providing a wide array of top class venues, pubs, as well as extravagant shops and market stalls, the London area has proved once again to be the perfect setting for the annual event bearing its name, Camden Rocks.
Bringing together the best up and coming and renowned names of the rock scene for one day under the same roof, or better say, roofs, this year’s event counted an outstanding number of 25 venues, hosting 250 acts from early morning to late night. Big names on the bill included the likes of Feeder, The Damned, Pulled Apart By Horses, Carl Barat and The Jackals and The Corals.
First on for us was an acoustic set from London based Moses. Still fresh from their performance at this year’s Great Escape Festival and from the release of their latest and second-ever single “King Size”, the band played to a packed audience at the Kraken Rum branded stage, a teeny tiny spot located beneath the Stables stalls right in the middle of Camden Town Markets, which hosted a series of free entry acoustic performances from a wide number of the festival acts throughout the day.
It’s no wonder that Moses have been previously compared to the likes of the early Blur: their signature gritty rock’n’roll and brit-pop-cool attitude emerged even through a set played solely by voice and guitar, confirming them to be one of the most interesting new acts at the festival.
Next on was the first performance of the day at the newly opened Doc Martens flagship store just around the corner from the Stables. The tiny, sweaty room steadily filled up very quickly with music fans who had been queuing outside in order to attend the live set from Southend-On-Sea’s finest Asylums.
The riotous four-piece have built quite a fanbase already thanks to their chaotic live sets and their Camden Rocks performance was nothing less: their set was packed with fantastic melodies, exploding energy and their stage presence was on point: from the frontman’s stage diving on the small and definitely-not-fitted-for-stage-diving crowd to the borderline epileptic moves from guitarist Luke Branch, who easily put on a show by himself, attracting gig photographers all over the room like magnets.
First on for us for the big names side at this year’s Camden Rocks were The King Blues at iconic venue Electric Ballroom. The Hackney-based punk rockers fuse punk and hip hop together with influences from ska, intertwining catchy melodies with spoken word. Their lyrics tackle social issues and challenge politics and society, guaranteeing the band a place alongside the likes of Public Enemy, The Clash and The Specials which are also amongst their main musical influences. The band played tunes from their latest release The Gospel Truth, but one of the main highlights of the set remained an emotional rendition of their 2008 single The Streets Are Ours, heartfeltly sung along by the whole crowd.
Going back to new music discovery, two more bands definitely worth keeping an eye on were Rival Karma and Yonaka.
Rival Karma played their set at Lyttleton Arms, a cosy tiny venue located just in front of legendary KOKO. Fresh from the release of their latest single Scream accompanied by dark and eerie visuals, the band conveys influences from American rock and blues into their groovy basslines and heavy guitar riffs, putting on a live performance that is energetic, entertaining and overall brilliant, making it almost impossible to stand still and avoid dancing along.
The same can be said for Brighton based Yonaka, whose set was hosted at Dingwalls Canalside. A venue far too bright and airy for the four-piece’s dark and sensual tunes, perfectly accompanied by singer’s Theresa Jarvis smooth dance moves and hair flips which are definitely fit for bigger and better stages. Indeed, the band is set to play a bunch of festivals this summer, including Isle Of Wight and Download.
We next moved to KOKO for performances from Carl Barat And The Jackals and The Coral, two of the most anticipated big names on the bill for the day.
The Libertines’ guitarist and ex Dirty Pretty Things frontman proved once again to be an outstanding musician, with the ability to captivate an audience which had very likely been drinking throughout the whole day with both his own material and The Libertines classic tunes. He appeared on stage with his Jackals in smooth leather attire, branding a Union Jack flag on the back amps which stated (of course) “Vote Labour”. The set was, raw, powerful and overall adrenaline-filled, one of the highlights of the whole festival.
A whole wave of nineties nostalgia crashed with The Coral’s performance: the Liverpool native band performed a setlist of both classics, including 2005 hit In The Morning, as well as brand new material, their newly found rock influences emerging fairly clearly from their signature classic country and sixties psychedelia sounds.
As the rain began to pour, we sheltered at The Good Mixer just in time for Sisteray’s performance. These guys have been building quite a reputation for themselves, and it shows: their live sets are packed with crowds moshing, stage diving and singing along to every single word of their riotous, unapologetic tunes.
The tiny, uncomfortable venue didn’t give them justice, but it definitely didn’t prevent them from playing an effortlessly brilliant set. Coming together out of their shared love for bands such as The Smiths, Velvet Underground, The Clash and The Replacements, this four-piece perfectly channels these influences for both music and stage presence, rewriting the rules of indie rock by infusing it with strong political views, one sing-along anthem at a time.
As a conclusion, Camden rocks, and it does it hard. All of the bands playing at the festival, both up and coming and already affirmed were top quality acts, attracting nurtured crowds to every single venue since the early hours of the morning until late at night.
Tickets for the 2018 Camden Rocks edition are on sale. If you’re in London this time next year, make sure not to miss it!
