Camden Crawl 2010 - 2 days of music, rain and too much sake

The annual pilgramage that is Camden Crawl did not get off to a good start this year. The heavens opened as we approached the north London suburb and the queue that greeted us was heart sinking. It is astounding that the Crawl has been running for this many years and still can't get it right (anyone for multiple wrist band collection points perhaps?).

Having said that the queue did move fairly quickly. Once tagged, a few beers in the Enterprise revived us. Then after a scour of the timetable and we decided to make our way to the Electric Ballroom to see Wild Palms.

Wild Plams are a fairly standard four piece. Their drummer is amazing, but their singer really lets them down. Even the one song that could have been good was let down by his shoddy vocals and poor timing. Shame.

Although we were only one band in, a diversion to a Japanese restaurant was scheduled for some much needed sushi snacks. The plan was to go and see Mount Kimbie afterwards, but an inability to read the timetable and too much sake meant we missed them. Oh well, it was off to see Dead Meadow instead.

Dead Meadow hail from California and have great moustaches and can really play guitar. They are slick and professional, nailing that 70s rock/psychedelia vibe like no other. However I did wonder whether we really need yet another band that sounds like Led Zeppelin. It would be nice if they could bring something new to the party.

Next off to Koko for Teenage Fanclub. I was excited at seeing an old teenage favourite of mine and even though I owned Bandwagonesque at some point, I couldn't remember a single tune from it. I was hoping that the gig would awaken some memories, but alas not. It was slightly disappointing to be honest, as although faultless, the performance left me feeling a bit cold. It seemed to go down well with the rest of the crowd though, with some spectacular moshing to some pretty relaxed and melodic music.

After Koko we headed to the Blues Kitchen to see Silver Columns. This was the top pick of my night so I was expecting great things. However, whatever went on in the midnight slot sounded nothing like any of the Silver Columns stuff I'd heard. If anyone else was there and can shed some light on to this I would love to know. Was I the only one to leave disappointed?

So at the end of day one I was left with a slightly bitter taste in the mouth, but day two was still ahead of us with all sorts on offer. Stay tuned for more...