New Pornographers - Koko, London, 16/5/2006

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 21 / 5 / 2006

intro

Candian alt. country group the New Pornographers recently played a London show. Jamie Rowlaand watches them play a pleasant-on-the-ear, but somewhat unremarkable set

Arriving at Camden’s Koko expecting a night of purest indie pop from across the pond, I was pleasantly surprised to find UK folkster M Craft take to the stage for the first support slot. I’ve seen M Craft play a couple of times, and it’s always a real treat; really chilled out songs with some lovely harmonies from his backing band. The inclusion of a glockenspiel in any set is also a big point scorer for me. Spoon were more of what I was expecting from this gig; the sort of rock/pop that’s incredibly popular in the States, but for some reason stays on the fringe of the UK indie kids’ radar (although saying that, they seemed to pull in a good chunk of the crowd). I like Spoon’s records a lot, but I didn’t feel there was anything particularly engaging about their performance. While the Spoon fans in the crowd seemed to be enjoying hearing their favourite songs played live, I didn’t think that they had much energy, and a lot of the songs sounded a little to similar to me.The group of American tourists jumping around excitedly throughout their set, however, made a good atmosphere in the venue, and made the set seem more fun than it might have been otherwise. The New Pornographers took to the stage as the night’s headliners (although in reality it seemed more like a joint headlining slot, as Spoon’s set was probably just as long). The Canadian group were a member short, due to synth player Blaine Thurier having just just become a father, but the group lost nothing from their sound, with keyboardist/vocalist Kathryn Calder also taking up synthesiser duties for the evening. The band played most of the songs from their latest album, 'Twin Cinema', including a stonking performance of the title track and super catchy single ‘Sing Me Spanish Techno’. The set also included a good few songs from previous releases, including fan favourite ‘The Laws Have Changed’, which got most of the crowd singing along and dancing away. While this was certainly not one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to, the bands got people smiling and dancing enough to make it an enjoyable evening's entertainment, and to make the New Pornographers a band worth going to see.

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