Sleaford Mods Storm Camden's Roundhouse: Review.

Nottingham's Sleaford Mods played one of their biggest headline shows to date last week at The Roundhouse and cemented their place as one of the most important and compelling live acts in the country.

Jason Williamson (vocals) and Andrew Fearn (music) initially seemed dwarfed by the sheer size of the venue that an impressive 1,700 people had crammed into. But it didn't take long for my eyes and the eyes of everyone else in the venue to stop admiring the size of the place and focus on the stage, thanks mainly to the immediate and continuous charisma of Williamson. He is now obviously accustomed to playing to large crowds of adoring bald men, blending dark comedy and well-founded rage so perfectly that it would keep even the most skeptical of onlookers interested.

The setlist wasn't quite what the majority of their fans would expect to start with, it was slightly disappointing to not hear all the "hits" (if you can call them that). However, after only a few tracks, the performance became massively enjoyable regardless of the level of familiarity with the tracks. Hearing and seeing the quantity and more importantly, the quality of the new material the duo hopefully have ready to release was also very encouraging. It is understandable that a band that tour as extensively as these two do would get fed up of playing the same setlist day after day. It was clearly refreshing for them to dip their toe into the unknown and it must be said that this itself is pretty ballsy, especially in a venue such as this. That in itself is a big part of their appeal, they're not known for playing it safe and I doubt they ever will be.

The music (old and new) sounded as solid and affirming as it always does coming through the Roundhouse soundsytem, Fearn's plundering bass-lines and harsh mechanical drum machine beats bounced through the room with unfaltering ferocity. Williamson's vocals sounded even more aggressive live that they do on any of the recorded material. Though the lyrics remained the same, he displayed them with such fury that it looked as if he was screaming them in the faces of those they are written in spite of. His movements on stage draw everyone in, there's nothing fake about it, there's no power chord stances or hair flicks whilst wearing a River Island leather jacket. He looks like a man possessed, screaming profanities and spitting all over the mic, while Fearn juxtaposes his performance with a gentle head bob and a bottle of Stella in hand.

Sleaford Mods released a 5 track EP titled "TCR" earlier this year and it gained well-warranted praise, they gave a couple of the tracks from the EP an outing, including the title track, which was very well received. The audience was extremely receptive throughout the whole show, yelling back the choruses they were familiar with and moshing to the ones they weren't. For those in the crowd who were aching to hear something more familiar, the encore was the moment they were appeased. The three song encore was composed of "Jobseeker", "Tied Up In Nottz" and "Tweet Tweet Tweet", all of which encouraged an almost word for word sing along from the crowd (which is no mean feat). As usual, after the show their Twitter page was bombarded with praise and thanks from people who were in attendance, one user compared the gig to a Ramones performance he saw at The Roundhouse.

Just as the set reached a point at which Williamson was pretty much drenched in sweat, he announced: "You haven't come to see us, we've come to see you", (or something to that effect) and despite his regular sarcasm and aggressive irony this appeared to be genuine. They both really seem to care for the fan base they have worked extremely hard to rightfully acquire and maintain, they understand that they're the ones they have to thank for their current place in the industry. The only complaint anyone could fairly take from the gig and that is that it could have been longer, at just about an hour long it seemed like the audience could have happily stood through another hour of performance. But even that is more of a compliment than a complaint, which I think stresses once again just how essential they are to the current UK music scene.

Let's hope they continue to this standard until they're old(er) and grey(er).

Words: Liam Navey.