Those Dancing Days @ Barfly, September 25, 2008

Why?
First, an apology. On my Scroobius Pip review, I stated that Jon Hillcock’s Saturday night show was the only thing worth listening to on the increasingly rubbish XFM. In fact, John Kennedy’s Exposure (Monday-Thursday), where I first heard Those Dancing Days, is also a great show, focussing on new music. There’s a theme here- by day, XFM is bobbins; by night, is it actually very good.

And since we’re talking themes, here’s another: I am a fan of Swedish pop, it turns out. Somewhat inadvertently, this is the third Swedish pop band I have seen this year. And someone high up in the musicosphere meant for this to happen, because Scandinavian pop bands are being shipped over to London with intentional regularity- Lykke Li, The Shout Out Louds, Ida Maria, and now this lot. And they are all very good, really, so well done whoever is behind this. It might also be some kind of Darwinian musical selection too... a kind of inevitable musical osmosis flowing across the North Sea...as there is something very (naturally) cool about these bands (no pun intended). In fact, some in the fashion world have being saying it for years- when it comes to style; Scandinavia has got the rest of Europe licked.

The Venue
The Camden Barfly is a venue of two halves. Atmospherically, it is excellent. The downstairs bar is rarely packed, meaning that the gig space upstairs always comes as a bit of a surprise. You walk into what seems like a back room, up some grubby stairs framed in exposed brick, and into a dark, musty, small gig space, fit for a couple of hundred at most. So far, so Camden. But for a venue that promises so much, I have never been anything but disappointed by the quality of sound at the Barfly. And once again, they cocked it up. The drums were too loud, and the synth keyboard and vocals (the two most crucial elements of Those Dancing Days) weren’t loud enough. There’s an argument that with small, atmospheric venues, shit acoustics go with the turf, but I don’t buy it. The Camden Barlfy is lazy: too self-satisfied with being a bit of a Camden institution to make sure the fundamentals are right.

What they look like
Very young. The guitarist could have been 14. They look a bit like a higgledy piggeldy bunch of geeky art foundation students. Excuse the horribleness, but for all the promise of being an all-girl group from Stockholm, they are not an obviously attractive bunch, which is quite nice actually- if they were stunners that would become their gimmick, rather than the music. The lead singer, Linnea, stood out stylistically, with a pencil skirt and a tied-up baggy shirt, which made her look something like a glamorous diner waitress. 80s US bowling alley chic, perhaps, which suits the music. There was something latterday about the way she moved too, posturing her body diagonally and arcing her neck towards the mic like one of the Supremes, clenching her fists and swinging her arms.

What they sound like
Linnea’s voice is full of squelchy melodrama, and makes the whole sound anchored in pop. There is a kind of knowingly trashy romanticism about it, with lots of warbling and accidentals- the closest match is Mutya Buena, weirdly. There is a New Jersey twang to her voice too, that kind of sugary female vocal that you get with the Long Blondes and even Kate Pierson from the B-52s. The music rides with the sound of her voice, in soppy cacophony. It’s teenage crush music, sooped-up by superb drums that maintains the tempo and intensity of the vocals with lots of fills and rolls (a bit like the Go! Team). The fairground synths carry a lot of the songs, making them sound like a poppy version of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Conclsion
Excellent, if only a little spoiled by the rubbish sound. There is something distinctively teenage about Those Dancing Days, not only because they all look about 17, but carried in the music too. Hitten is a pining love song, Run Run is an excitable and naive, and the self-titled track is full of pubescent, joyous release. They make you feel nostalgic and soppy. Gawd, they actually make you feel like you are reliving those dancing days. They make you feel like a teenager. And that, my friends, is a good thing. Top pop.

Pics: rainsoaked, fabbio, possan, Laura Charlotte

tags: jon hillcock john kennedy xfm exposure those dancing days stockholm pop ida maria lykke li the shout out louds camden barfly mutya buena b-52 kate pierson long blondes go! team clap your hands say yeah run run hitten