Sugarcult, Camden Underworld
It’s a regular occurrence for me to feel old at shows now but tonight was weird as I was certainly not one of the youngest there and certainly not one of the eldest. The reason for this being there were so many kids here tonight that a lot of parents came along for the ride; not something I’ve experienced since I saw GREEN DAY last. Musically, it was weird too; two strange choices of support for an extremely poppy-punk band, but they say variety is the spice of life. Although I’m not keen on overly spicy food, but now I’m rambling…
CARDIA opened tonight’s proceedings after announcing THE FIGHT were unable to make it to the show, I was particularly looking forward to reviewing the much talked about and now infamous band, but alas I’ll have to wait for another opportunity to arise. CARDIA reminded me of a UK indie band; in a sort of STARSAILOR meets THE DOVES kind of way. Although I quite liked their overall sound, they were pretty dull tonight performance wise. I can imagine I’d like them on CD but they were incredibly static throughout their set and just sounded a bit too samey to keep me interested for too long; certainly a strange choice of support act. (5)
DIVISION OF LAURA LEE were the next band on and I was wondering if a band with one of the worst names I’ve ever heard would sound better. They’re from SWEDEN but before I found this out, they had already reminded me of THE HIVES except a bit more pissed off and experimental. After the first few minutes I was quite enjoying their set, but after a few more I went and sat down. I just got a bit bored and eventually their 45 minute set seemed like those last few minutes at school before you finish for the summer, in a word; neverending. (4)
Speaking of school, I’m surprised the majority of kids stayed so late to see SUGARCULT as they must have finished their set at 11ish. But the place was absolutely packed; by the end of the set I was literally forced up against the back wall of the 800 capacity venue. Standing near me was a quartet of SUGARCULT fans who were about half my size and all dressed in identical SUGARCULT merch, it was rather cute but when you start feeling paternal at a punk show you know you’re in trouble. Fortunately SUGARCULT provided great entertainment from start to finish including an encore. They had the crowd worshipping their every word/chord/drum beat. It was really spectacular to see them get a good few hundred kids all to get on their knees and pretend to be bunny rabbits at the first time of asking. They had every single lyric sung back at them in every song and every bit of banter between songs was greeted by huge cheers, even the mispronounciation of donner kebab (kebaarb?! What the hell have they been eating?!). SUGARCULT’s not particularly unique good time pop-punk was superbly executed in a massively infectious manner and had the whole crowd bouncing around more than a kid with Attention Deficit Disorder after a pack of Tate and Lyle. If you want to see an unpretentious and incredibly entertaining band you could do hell of a lot worse than SUGARCULT. A really enjoyable set. (8.5)
Although I was wishing I could go home after the support bands, as I almost fell into a boredom induced coma, SUGARCULT really saved the night. Even though it’s not the most challenging music and I had to spend my evening with a bunch of hyperactive kids, they really put on a damn good show which made it all worthwhile.
Mike
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