Los Campesinos!

Thursday, May 29
Los Campesinos!
$29.50 Adv. / $35 Day of / All Ages / Doors: 6PM / Show: 7PM

In February 2008, Los Campesinos! put out their first album, Hold On Now, Youngster… The record was an efficient creative statement; a debut that quickly brought them critical success, a ‘hit’ single, and a reputation as the most fiercely enthusiastic band in indie pop. Everyone had them all figured out for a solid eight months, until a second record, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, was released that October. Those ten tracks of energetic desperation were far more bombastic and far less wholesome than anything on Heavenly or K Records, and established the group not as the latest in a lineage, but rather as a catalyst for an entirely new kind of musical exuberance.
 
Going forward from their breakout year, neither the press nor the record store snobs knew quite what to do with a band who were unabashedly sincere in their tone and lyricism, who refused to limit themselves to the confines of genre with a sound that varied from album to album. The group were always changing as individuals; to claim otherwise in their music would be disingenuous to the experience of growing up. 
 
Fully knowing and appreciating Los Campesinos! means listening to every album over again; decoding lyrics to a fault, re-contextualizing one record upon another’s release, replaying the new single while screaming face-down into a pillow or kissing someone right before you break up. Slightly pretentious and incredibly endearing, they perfectly capture the moments of the in-between with honesty and irreverence. Over the years, members came and went because life goes on, no hard feelings, and ardent fans pressed themselves up against the stage to scream the words, no matter how old they were the last time.