Friday 18/04/08 Day One, The Camden Crawl @ Various Venues, London

Camden, London’s undisputed musical hub, has for years been the place for any band worth their salt, either established, aspiring or otherwise, to pay their dues; and in celebration of its vast musical heritage, this weekend’s annual Camden Crawl plays host to over 100 bands, across 25 venues.

Gigwise decided that the best way to open our Crawl account was to dive headfirst into the madness by hopping onto one of the two Routemaster buses Enter Shikari has laid on to transport 100 or so anticipation ridden fans from Chalk Farm to a secret gig in the grimy backroom of the iconic Bull and Gate. It’s not long before the band appears, wearing a collective shit-eating grin and then it begins. Rou Reynolds heads the post-hardcore charge, jumping the crowd to establish a frenetic moshpit that matches the pace and energy that ‘Return To Energiser’, ‘Kicking Back On The Surface Of Your Cheek’, ‘Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour’ and ‘No Sssweat’ provide. It’s an unrehearsed, sprawling and spluttering set that see’s Reynolds stage dive to ‘We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don’t Want Us To’ returning just in time for bassist Chris Batten to announce that “encores are gay” before the St Albans lunacy ends with ‘Acid Nation’ and ‘OK Time For Plan B’.

It’s already been a long day, filled with scattered gigs and fringe events, but The Crawl doesn’t get fully into its stride until the early evening. Koko is filling up rapidly as Ida Maria, complete with signature top hat, takes centre stage. Foot stomping her way through the conventionally appealing pop rock of ‘Drive Away My Heart’ and ‘Louie’ with such carefree confidence belies the growling 23-year-old’s emotional outpourings. Her performance is cushioned throughout with a dynamic, playful aggression and halfway through the set her glorious smile, justified confidence and enthusiasm is catching on allowing the Norwegian to bounce around and throw water over her band-mates to ‘Queen Of The World’ and ‘Stella’ before feistyly and unapologetically crashing to her knees, ending her time in the spotlight with the powerful overtones of ‘Oh My God’.

Across the road in The Crescent, Royworld are plundering the musical landscape of the 80’s with their blend of vivacious piano rock. Thankfully their sound doesn’t follow Keane’s blueprint and the emotively energised song structures are as impressive as today’s solid performance, illustrated through the perfect execution of ‘Elasticity’, ‘Same Sun’ and the forthcoming single ‘Dust’. Vocalist Rob Futrille et al seem overwhelmed, The Crescent is a tiny pub and these smartly dressed affable young men are proving a big hit, their set peppered by sporadic pockets of screaming girls. But they manage to retain their composure as ‘Wished Ourselves Away’, ‘Science’ and ‘Man In The Machine’ go down a storm before ‘Brakes’ impressively concludes their naturally polished performance and the band slip quickly out the back door.

CLICK HERE to see Day One in pictures