WILLIAM CONTROL, a.k.a WiL Francis, frontman of the once promising AIDEN, tonight brings his solo show to Camden. With AIDEN’s future slowly looking bleak, maybe building up a reputable solo career is a very wise move indeed. Nevertheless, he has a long way to go up from Camden’s Dingwalls.
First up tonight though are FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, who themselves look set for big things this year – and quite rightly so. Tonight more than ever, they’re reminisce of a perfect blend of ‘I Brought You My Love, You Brought Me Your Bullets’ and ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’ MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – especially when it comes to the new material from their forthcoming debut full length album. Their performance tonight excellent and shows they’re still ones to keep a close eye on.
For OBSCURE PLEASURES to come on after such a great performance is bad luck, but quite frankly we don’t think it makes a difference as they’re not doing themselves any favours. Not enthralled by whats going on onstage, a fair few people walk around, chat and use this chance for a cigarette/drink break. Once the monotone voice stops and the music fades out, the crowd come flocking back in for the man himself.
WILLIAM CONTROL, sounding like some sort of techno/industrial AIDEN, states many times tonight that the music industry is fucked and has been unkind to AIDEN and him since headlining venues of 2000 capacity over here only a few years back. Regardless of this, William pushes on, and though he’s probably earned the title “rock star”, he’s not quite big enough to escape the smoking ban, as a security guard has to go onstage to tell him to stub one out, even if he’d already gotten away with smoking a few.
Will is joined on stage by AIDEN bassist Zombie Nick tonight, who are both backed by a backing track. It takes them and the crowd a few songs to get into the swing of things, as it just doesn’t have the true feeling of a live show at first. But, once past this, the the dark, smutty and riské lyrics, tackling subjects that would make a lot of people’s skin crawl, fit the mood well.
Despite the fact that the music is not “fully live” it’s not ruined, and songs such as ‘Beautiful Loser’, ‘Razor’s Edge’ and even the New Order cover ‘1963’ gets the eager crowd down the front jumping to every beat. William has a very distinct voice, a voice which makes every word he sings sound that much darker and memorable, and the night comes to a close with ‘I’m Only Human Sometimes’ after a few more speeches about the decline of the music industry and how much he loves this city of London. A slightly strange evening, but an enjoyable one nontheless.
RYAN COOPER