Cymbals Eat Guitars
Where: Camden Barfly, London
When: 24th June 2010
It's not until you get Cymbals Eat Guitars in a small venue such as the Camden Barfly that you get a full glimpse of the talents at their disposal. Delicate, tentative but often bursting with visceral power, if nothing else it certainly is an experience.
Yet there is much more to CEG, especially tonight. After warm up acts with little penetration and crippling technical difficulties, some crowd entertainment is long overdue. And, if not in the traditional sense, frontman Joseph D'Agostino is the man to deliver. Tuning his guitar in meticulous fashion time and again before carrying out every last check, he looks every inch the reserved perfectionist. That is until he launches headlong into “And The Hazy Sea”, fervent strumming and contorted facial expressions abound.
And so the theme for the night is set. Flitting from unassuming quiet men to spitting dervish, CEG are simply stunning. Blasting their personalised indie rock into the faces of the intimately gathered crowd, at times it is easy to gawp at the passion on show.
Each track gets the same emotional dedication, from frantic full on numbers to the more melodic yet changeable "Wind Phoenix”. The instrumentation is spot on and perfectly balanced, whilst D'Agostino lives every note and feels every chord. At times one can't help but feel for his health, as the vein in his neck protrudes so far you are sure it will burst, but this man gives it everything and it is an astounding spectacle.
There is nothing better than seeing a band in their element, and that is certainly Cymbals Eat Guitars tonight. As they progress through the set, rolling out album favourites including the bright and chirpy "Some Trees" and the schizophrenic “Cold Spring”, each gets the same consideration, each is so gloriously crafted. In D'Agostino they have a frontman capable of astounding delivery, yet it is as a band that their collective passions truly impress.
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