Lightspeed Champion / Pete And The Pirates

From what certainly looked on paper as the highlight of the iTunes festival, the crowd arrived at Camden's gorgeous Koko venue to the jaunty indie pop of Pete and The Pirates and the melodic alt-country rock of Dev Hynes AKA Lightspeed Champion. Maybe not mainstream but both have well received album's under their belts and are keen to showcase new material on their way to making that notoriously difficult 2nd album.

Now, I have seen Pete and the Pirates a couple of times (last year at the intimate Borderline and instore at Rough Trade East). I'm not sure if its the larger stage, but something is missing from tonight's performance. Maybe its the constant touring or the need to find new songs but their fun and infectious pop tunes seemed to be less exciting and more serious than before. They start slowly and the crowd seem disinterested but eventually get it right and grab their attention with the second half of their set.

Some songs really stand out. Recent single 'She doesn't belong to me' starts softly but roars into action and is by far and away the highlight. 'Mr Understanding' and 'Come on Feet' get the crowd moving but these are the final songs and just as they warm the audience up, they're off again. There's no doubt that the band have the songs, the energy and are fantastic in an intimate setting but are they made for the bigger stage? Only time will tell...



Which leads us on to the headliner, Lightspeed Champion. Now, this guy is Surely made for bigger things. Playing twice at Glastonbury last week, he seems in a more subdued mood here in London. Maybe its the lack of Pear Cider? Who knows. The set does not suffer though. Starting off with a tender and heartfelt solo effort 'Everybody I Know Is Listening To Crunk', Hynes launches into the superb 'Galaxy of the Lost'.

The crowd is a strange one. Made up of competition winners, many of which seem to be checking out bands unknown to them and it is reflected in the reception that the songs are given. Slower numbers have loud murmuring over the top (everyone's worst nightmare at a gig for a band they enjoy) and the songs don't seem to get the applause or reaction they deserve. Lightspeed, however, has other ideas and slowly wins the mutterers over with the up tempo 'Tell Me What its Worth', and a new song that he introduces as "a song to dance to."



The variation in new songs and old songs show the confidence Hynes has in his new material. However, its his musicianship that shines through tonight. 'All to Shit' shows the bands diversity as they switch instruments, allowing Dev to have a bash on the drums and final song 'Midnight Surprise' show his guitar work is also not to be sniffed at.

The crowd interaction show Dev's love of playing live and when the inevitable words "This is our last song, thanks for coming" are used, there is air of disappointment that its the end - although this is surely to the bands credit. They finish with 'Star Wars Theme', a fabulous violin fuelled rendition of yes, you guessed it, the Star Wars Theme, which is mixed in to the highlight, the wondrous 9 minute closer 'Midnight Surprise'. The song changes direction many times over like a country version of Paranoid Android finishing with a stadium sized singalong of repeating the line "Shoot me into sleep." Its a song that shows the real potential of Lightspeed and surely we'll be seeing him on bigger stages come album number two.



He walks off to 1500 newly converted fans and although at the start the crowd were on the dark side, tonight Dev showed them the light. Long may it continue.

FUTURE GIGS

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