Dandy Warhols – Electric Ballroom, Camden

I’d previously been to the Electric Ballroom in Camden when it was a clothes and music market – so I wasn’t expecting much as a venue, but it actually works quite well.
There’s 3 different bars so it’s reasonably easy to get a drink. You enter on the side of the main floor – so there isn’t a constant crowd moving in and out while you’re trying to watch. And aside from the open floor section, you can head upstairs to watch from a smaller bar at the far end of the room – which is where Kimbo and I managed to snag a good spot.
The Dandy’s haven’t been super-busy since I saw them last August at the Bar Academy and it was a fairly similar show, although the band did play a few news songs from a forthcoming album that front-man Courtney promised would be coming out in 2008.
“All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey” sounded great – starting off fairly sparsely before the whole band kicked in. Other highlights: “We Used To Be Friends”, “You Were The Last High”, and “Not If You Were The Last Junkie on Earth”.
“Bohemian Like You” caused a full-on minor riot in the mosh-pit and, as keyboardist Zia pointed our “the first crowd surfer I’ve seen in, like, seven years”.
The band was still playing in almost complete darkness, using a screen behind the stage to project different footage for each song. Again closing with “Country Leaver” the band sounded great – and while it was a good show, it’s pretty frightening how similar it was to their last London show a year ago.