Camden Crawl live blog: Enter Shikari

Thus it was that wristband wearers were shoehorned onto a bus bound for the northern climes of Kentish Town and lo! they did see Enter Shikari.

Who seemed like nice quiet boys in the car on the way to the venue. Manager Keith (the lead singer's father, I was told en route) was in boisterous mood, clearly looking forward to the gig which began just after 3pm in the blacked-out Bull & Gate, next to the much larger Forum.

Mr Lead Singer said: "Remember, this is not the Babyshambles. All the other bands are shit indie bands. This is the only time you're going to have fun." And so they did, Mr Lead Singer resembling the Honey Monster with his metaller howls and blond hair. They claimed not to have rehearsed, but the moshpit at the front didn't seem to mind. Enter Shikari had just provided the most energetic hour of the day so far and, unpracticed or not, they gave good value to their MySpaz backers.

And so to the evening's entertainment, when I mutate to become two (or maybe three) reviewers and we produce a joint epic of the evening's festivities when we're sober enough to try. Amongst the acts on tonight are Sam Sparro, Thecocknbullkid, Crystal Castles, The Wombats, Post War Years, Hatcham Social, Lykke Li, Ipso Facto and Youthmovies. It's going to be busy...

Until tomorrow then.

Iron Man on the Onion

Iron Man is featured on the Onion at the moment in a particularly fine video article, entitled "Iron Man trailer to be turned into full length film." As with most Onion stories, it's a great joke spun out to a neat two minutes. Take a look here.

Camden Crawl live blog: calm before storm?

The wind has picked up and it's bloody cold. Could there be a storm brewing?

A storm of a different kind could well be in the offing, but it's possible we may be warming up in it. Later this afternoon we hoof it (or perhaps take a bus) up to Kentish Town for MySpaz's "secret" gig at the Bull & Gate.

Enter Shikari are the not-so-secret-at-all band being offered in the 100-capacity boozer. Already wristbanded wanderers are to be seen pointing their feet in a northward direction.

For now though, time to get out of the vox pop media circus and see some of the afternoon's events. At the moment I'm listening to The Good, The Bad & The Queen - a band I first saw in Camden, up the road at the Roundhouse - on the Buck's Head's jukebox. The people from Bloody Awful Poetry are programming the afternoon's festivities - every table has a laminated poem for our delectation, and heartfelt strumming by boys in hats seems to be the order of the day.

As for the schedule for this evening, there are some unfortunate clashes, but we'll do our best.

Camden Crawl live blog: Yoav

Yoav has just been setting up for what's billed as an acoustic gig, to a handful of media people.

Of course he's an acoustic artist anyway, and his acoustic set still involved setting up his various pedals. As he laid down his backing tracks though, it was clear his way with a fretboard is not based n trickery. He's playing Adore Adore as I write this. The guy is just incredibly talented.

We interviewed Yoav recently, in which he talked about his pedal set-ups that allow him to play something like trance music on an acoustic guitar.

More soon...

Camden Crawl live blog

So here we are at the seventh Camden Crawl. The weather is so far cloudy, but the rain's staying off.

Already early birds are queueing up for their wristbands behind the Electric Ballroom, and the media centre is a buzzing hive full of busy bees, with various TV companies lining up chats with Lykke Li, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Hadouken! and Ipso Facto, so name just a few.

Acoustic showcases this afternoon include acts playing with full mains electricity this evening and tomorrow. Once we collate our schedules we'll have a better idea what we might manage to see.

Last year I must have walked between Mornington Crescent and Chalk Farm at least three times. Alas, Camden Council have still not built a monorail.

More updates as the day progresses. If you're at the Crawl, let us know...