Somewhere into the third or fourth song of former Cardiff U students Los Campesinos’ live set at Electric Owl – after ear-tickler “Romance is Boring”, “Death to Los Campesinos!” and “Life is a Long Time” – I turned to my gig buddies.

“Huh.” I said.
“Huh, what?” Michelle asked.

“I was expecting them to come out swinging, like really, really BIG and blow my mind with high energy,” I said, or something to that effect. “But this is straddling a 7 out of 10. I reckon they’re halfway through the tour. This is a CLASSIC halfway gig. Still good, but halfway tired.” “Huh. Yeah.” Michelle said. “Mind you, the stage is really too small for all of them. They probably can’t move.”

And it was true, they couldn’t really move. And they couldn’t really dance. And they were tired. But Los Campesinos! were still charming. And not just because of song titles like “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte” and “The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future”.

Between knocking the appeal of his own band, celebrating the fact that former tour mates You Say Party! were in attendance, making jokes about their videos and sort of backhandedly complimenting Vancouver, singer Gareth Paisley did all the chatting. And it was endearing.

But not as endearing as the hand-written sign posted on his xylophone that said:  “Do not be afraid to make eye contact with girls.” D’awwww. Oh, Los Camp, you’re adorable.

Afterward a solid set of first, third and latest album songs, I asked guitarist Neil Beale where they were in terms of the tour. “Halfway!” he chirped. “Why? Could you tell? ‘Cos we were all totally knackered?” “Uh, yeah, I could,” I said, not wanting to lie to a cute, young Cardiffian. “Huh, yeah” he said, smiling.

The next day, I got a tweet from Gareth on Twitter. “We’re weren’t knackered! The stage was just too small to dance!” he wrote. Uh, yeah, we got that, but that’s not what the three brunettes with beards in your band said, friend.

But still, I really like you Los Campesinos!  And tired…happens. Touring is tough, I geddit. Especially when you have a hard time looking hot girls in the eye. \m/

Los Campesinos live at the Electric Owl was a co-production between the equally rad music site SceneintheDark.com and Timbre Concerts. Both of whom I love.