Live: London Calling festival, Amsterdam

London Calling festival presents upcoming British bands, who are on the way to making it in their own country. The likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Bravery, Franz Ferdinand and The Darkness have introduced themselves to the Dutch media and public in Paradiso the past years. With this edition’s killer line-up, the festival sold out for the first time.

Friday March 31st

Sheffield’s The Tiny Dancers were supposed to open the festival, but were horribly delayed and not able to make it in time. The first band up on stage was Dirty Pretty Things, new band of Libertines frontman Carl Barat. Expectations were high, but unfortunately the sound was so terrible that we couldn’t decipher what the man was singing. Or if it was even in English! Up on the balcony it was slightly better and we could here he was definitely speaking former mentioned language. The view was good as well, we could finally see the faces that were making all this noise. Three of them were wearing leather jackets, coming off later in the set, and black jeans, the drummer wasn’t wearing much at all. He seemed a little out of place, a black – and very muscular - man in a punk band, but he was a beast on the drums! It’s hard to rate this band because the sound was so poor, so we’ll leave that for the next time we’ll see them. Official website

Next up were Bromheads Jacket, playing at the tiny room upstairs. It normally holds 400 people, but there must have been at least 500 inside and even more were standing in the hall trying to get in. The place was packed! The gig started out nicely; the bandmembers looked a little bland and boring, all wearing drab colours, but the bouncy music and the singer’s charm made us forget that instantly. This is a show that everyone that was there will remember. Not for the great music, or the good looking bass player, but because Tim, the singer, dived headfirst into the audience and came out with blood streaming down his face and a broken guitar and kept on playing! Well, not on his guitar, because that had snapped in two, but he cleaned his forehead with a towel and decided to do the next song with just the bass and drums backing him. The already excited crowd roared. Bromheads Jacket’s gig was saved by another band lending them their guitar later and they finished their set taking in the loudest cheers they had ever been given. Verdict: 9/10 Official website

At Pukkelpop festival in Belgium (August 2005), we were impressed by the Futureheads and we were impatient to see them play an indoor venue. London Calling was our chance! We sat on the balcony during their performance at the main stage of Paradiso, and were somewhat disappointed. The interaction the band seemed to have in Belgium was gone, and the songs were much rougher. Though the music was technically good and the crowd went wild, the fun part was gone. Maybe the Futureheads give better shows outdoors after all. 7/10 Official website

Saturday April 1st

Mix some rock, folk and reggae and you’ll have the sound of Larrikin Love. The most noticeable about this band is its singer, performing bare footed, with a asymmetric hair and a huge sable ear hanger. What’s that about? Does he have secret ambitions to be a pirate? The crowd was filled with British fan girls. We, however, failed to hear or see the charm of this band and were glad when it was over. 5/10 Official website

We watched the Cinematics on the screen at the main stage while they were performing upstairs. The music sounded all right, but got a little boring after four songs of the same. And that is all there is to say about them really. Nothing extraordinary, nothing surprising, just steady melancholic rock music, with a hint of Coldplay in it. 7/10 Official website

We never heard of Humanzi, but were quite surprised when we heard them play. In a positive way that is! The jumping and crowd surfing audience will back us up when we say they rocked! This is a band worth watching out for and we are very curious what this band will grow into when it matures somewhat. 7,5/10 Official website

Though both Nik and I aren’t fond of female singers, The Long Blondes seemed interesting enough to check out when we googled them the week before the festival. They reminded us of the ‘angry chick music’ played in teenflick 10 Things I Hate About You and could have come straight from the film set! Dancable tunes with an eighties sound to them. Not very original and pretty safe, but those are about the only comments I can have about this band. 7/10 Official website

The band we had been waiting for all weekend was The Kooks. Having played this album nearly every day since it’s release, we were anxious to see what they were like live. Well, Annika was, I (Imre) had already seen them play before. The main hall was packed with fellow Kooks-lovers, restlessly awaiting for the band to come on stage. They opened with acoustic ballad Seaside, which is also the opening track of their album Inside In/Inside Out. Singer Luke fucked up Do You Want To See the World. I don’t know if he couldn’t hear himself, or if he had forgotten the lyrics, but it was crap. He picked up during the chorus, but then lost it again. The rest of the gig was no problem, although Luke’s voice was a bit rough and we wondered if he’d be able to talk at all the next day. The crowd was certainly enjoying itself, dancing, singing, cheering and clapping. Luke shook a few hands, introducing himself to the people at the front. The opening of Naïve got the loudest cheers of the evening, and it should, it’s a brilliant song. I’m sure the band can do better, but it was a good show in the end. 8/10 Official website

Verdict: All in all a great festival. The atmosphere is relaxed and the screen hanging over the main stage is a great way of being able to watch the band playing upstairs. The only downside was the tiny merchandise stand. Fashion item of this spring: horizontally striped shirts. Black and white. On both men and women. Emo has landed.

Annika (Futureheads, Larrikin Love, Cinematics, Humanzi) & Imre (everything else)

You can listen to all of the shows played this weekend, On VPRO's 3voor12 here