Camera Obscura at SFBH

Wow what a gig! Camera Obscura are a band from Glasgow, and they play plaintive, melancholic, hopeful pop music that harkens back but has modern synthey bits too.

Their set at the San Francisco Bath House (formerly Indigo) on Wednesday got off to a wee bit of a shaky start. They'd only just flown in from Sydney, and they looked and sounded very tired. This led to a little shakiness to begin with, but they soon became unstoppable.

The real turning point was 'Books Written For Girls' off their second album, 'Underachievers Please Try Harder'. For this, the drummer moved to percussion, the percussionist/trumpeteer moved to guitar, and TracyAnne Campbell the lead singer put down her guitar. Kenny the guitarist got out the old metal slide and I almost teared up.

Total magic. After the idiots in the front-right corner (yes you know who you are!) realised they were the only ones talking in the gaps and shut up, there was absolute silence. How often does that happen? I have it on good authority that the number is never for SFBH.

Here's an excerpt from that song:

You can compliment me on the style of my hair
Give me marks out of ten for the clothes that I wear
You probably thought I had more upstairs.

Thanks to AbsoluteLyrics.com

From then on the whole band seemed buoyed by the raucous applause, the banter increased, TracyAnne became sweeter, and the crowd was more enthralled. They left 'Let's Get Out Of This Country' til last - and it rocked!

And then, to my delight, a genuine encore. Yes the real thing folks - five minutes of applause, yelling and stomping, and then a nice little two-song send-off.

If you're an RDU listener you'll already be familiar with 'Let's Get Out Of This Country' and 'Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken' (thanks Pip!). Rest assured the 2006 album 'Let's Get Out Of This Country' has plenty more to offer than just the hits. It has to be one of my top five albums of last year.

Another thing that pleases me immensely is that Camera Obscura has a great flash-based website (including compilation tapes, recipes, film recommendations, wisdom, top fives and book reviews - one theme per member) www.camera-obscura.net

Take note bands...a SpyMace page may be good for accumulating 'adds' and for letting people listen to four of your tracks free, but your 'rad' yellow text on semi-scrolling black background with the tiled, moody cover photo from your latest EP just doesn't cut it I'm afraid. That is all.