I should Koko more often.....

British Sea Power
Koko
Camden
31st Jan

At least 9 Good things.

1. I love the inside of KoKo: the hyper gold and red colour scheme is great and the velvet and light panels bar area is very dramatic and glamorous makes a change from the usual London rock pits. The sounds good too, as is the world's biggest mirror ball.

2. Value for money: When people are paying the thick end of £40 quid to see the Portishead in a shed in West London. It’s good to go to gig for around £16 quid where you get 4 acts all worth seeing.

Supports were:
Jon & Jehn (French organ driven, Velvets tinged, yelping boy girl duo)
Best song: “Make your mum proud”

Eamon (muscly shouty bald BSP affiliate singer song writer)
Best songs: “comma comma comma full stop.”

These New Puritans: Who tick all the usually Neo post punk boxes i.e. most of them look like Franz Ferdinand, they sound like Wire and the Fall sort of.
Big bonus the lead singer was for some reason wearing some plate mail armour like the bastard son of Tenpole Tudor and Sam Gamges!
Best song: Well actually they all sounded a bit like “ ‘ello John got a new motor” by Alexi Sayle

3. Cheek bones: Bonus points to the keyboard/weird electronic noise purveyor from “These New Puritans” who was a striking young women with excellent cheek bones and a frosty glare, which she kept studiously for the entire set. A look so archly sour there wasn’t a fresh pint of milk in all of Camden.

4. Big chords: Then on came British Sea Power, the stage was already set with branches of fresh laurel, flags maritime and other. Straight into 'Lights Out for Darker Skies', the drama and dynamics of Sea powers records perfectly come over live and they play most of their new LP. In fact recent single Waving Flags goes down well as does Atom.

5. Light and shade: The sets not all anthemic crowd pleasers and obscure terms of references, half way through the set out comes “The Great Skua”. This largely instrumental piece gave a striking break mid gig. The song was backed by stunning film of the sea, Albatrosses nesting and just like “Blue Planet” a huge shoal of sardines. This could have been cheesy but if anyone can pull of maritime imagery its BSP!

6. Masks and uniforms: a mix of British military garb, flags, Ian Hamilton Finlay and also a weird form of 1920’s art school fauvism. Their films etc involve weird human animal hybrids, sort of Wicker man meets that Bunny man thing from “Sexy Beast “.

7. Noble: The lead guitarist the one who isn’t a brother is a striking stage presence looking like a young Stanley Baker, in the films he would be a steely Para NCO, tonight we got an impressive traverse across Koko’s equally impressively camp gilded rococo plaster work and some excellent crowd surviving oh and bear wrestling.

8.Easy, Easy, Easy: Speaking of wrestling tonight’s one of highlights was the appearance of a muscly shouty bloke wearing a white helmet wrestling belt and some strident tight briefs for what is becoming a live classic “No Lucifer “with it’s Big Daddy Chant of “easy. Easy. Easy” (it’s surprising that no one has used it in terrace chant pop song before.)

9. Lastly the gigs not over until the man in the bear suit dances. If you are going to end a gig, end it with more flag draped wrestlers, weird domino masks and a 10ft Ursine-homosapien monster.

Best songs: oh I can’t decided they were all excellent:
'Lights Out For Darker Skies''Atom''Fear Of Drowning''Remember Me''Canvey Island''Down On The Ground''Leaving Here''Blackout''Waving Flags''The Great Skua''Please Stand Up''Favours In The Beetroot Fields''The Spirit of St Louis''A Trip Out''No Lucifer''True Adventures''Carrion''Rock In A'

One last bad thing: having to queue for 20 minutes to get out, up some tight stairs and tunnel. It makes you nervous if you had to get out quickly, sort it out koko please.