Guest review: Crystal Stilts + Wavves + Pens @ Barden’s Boudoir, London. Feb 26th 2009

A quick word – the below review is from Joe who won his ticket to see Crystal Stilts through the MusicMule mailing list. Sign up here for a chance to win in future competitions – I have Animal Collective and Beirut tickets to give away in the coming weeks.

If any readers would like to try their hand at leaving a review then please get in touch.

In the meantime, thanks Joe.

Crystal Stilts – The SinKing

Pens – 1st support – I quite liked the first noisy, fun song. I spent the rest of Pens wondering why they were there. I concluded it was because they were having a ruddy good time, but mainly because the indie rock media is run by bored men who like to look at young female art students. And then I realized that that in itself is surely a form of art, to get me thinking about why a band are on stage. By the time I’d finished musing the set was over. So that validates Pens as a band for me.

Wavves – great name! Words I would associate with Wavves – Irony & Blink 182 and POP music.
It’s like a bouncy castle -> lots of fun, but gets boring after a while. The pop hooks keep it fresh, and the Blink 182 vocal connotations make me feel fuzzy. The falsetto is another thing which keeps me awake. Also, great name. Maybe you need to know the songs to appreciate the band more but I can’t help feeling that bands like this are popular on the strength of making the aging ruling males of the scene feel young and cutting edge again. Nevertheless, a good band, an important addition to the scene. What’s wrong wanting to feel young again? Well, you could be listening to something more interesting.

Crystal Stilts – finally, some real music and it comes from New York. Music which was consistently just plain good, it sounded great, loud, raw, and fucking cool, no bullshit. The type of cool which is born in New York. Plus having a lead singer who has the voice of Calvin Johnson helps to endear a band to my heart.

I get the feeling that CS have actually had the chance to hone their skills & sound & understand music, rather than coming up with a good name or just getting a few young arty upstarts together. CS weren’t just thrust into the limelight after their second gig, or hyped up by some A&R guy before they had a name. The problem is essentially the British music industry and the fact is that 15 minutes of fame is so attainable here, whereas in the US the scene is much less mainstream, so you don’t have to worry about being spotted by an NME journo and being proclaimed the best band ever. You can just make music which sounds great. Not actually my ideas, but those of his holiness Thurston Moore.

God Save New York.

Oh, and I stood by a brooding Alex Kapranos, wearing orange earplugs. Orange!

More inspiringly, I saw the Acorn in the street afterwards. Dalston: evidently the indie-rock place to be.

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