…. ONE AND ALL

The Songbird recently had the pleasure of being invited down to Camden’s Good Mixer for the ‘Beautiful Losers II’ gig in conjunction with This Feeling.

The line-up went as follows, Libertines favourites and ‘25 Hour Convenience Store’ crew ‘Dead Freights’, the glorious ‘Louis & The Shakes’ and first time band (to us) ‘Meet Arthur’.

Let me paint the picture of what this crowd looked like, before the music all you saw was great coats, good hair and indie cindys. 

‘Trailblazers’ Louis & The Shakes graced the stage first, my favourite thing about this band, bar their excellent music is the manner in which they hold themselves. It’s rare in 2022 to meet bands without an ego and talent. For me they’re the whole package, nice people who were happy to chat to the dreaded ‘journalists’. They put on a show, my favourite song being ‘Time Has Come’ listen here.

We then had ‘Meet Arthur’ I had to nip out during their set which was annoying so didn’t get to see them in all of their glory but the few songs I was lucky enough to hear made me want to see them again, and I look forward to next time!

Finally, we had headliners and Albion Rooms regulars ‘Dead Freights’. Taking to the stage, dressed to the nines the lads came, saw and conquered. Their indie bangers getting the whole room shaking. A must see band.

I managed to catch up with both Louis & The Shakes and The Dead Freights after their sets for a chat.

Louis & The Shakes

Welcome back to Camden we’re very excited to have you! What’s coming up next for you ?

Hey Katie, thanks for coming to the show and reviewing us, really means a lot – we are next performing on the 5th at the grace in Islington we love that venue

How do you feel tonight went?

We think the gig went really well despite it only being a two-piece performance gives us a chance to reinterpret a song we did ‘sucker punch’ in a different way ‘how badly do you want it’ was mixed in with a cover of an arctic monkey’s song on one was a moody version, Johnny Cash vibes, yeah it was cool I love doing gigs like that wish we could do them more

For people that have never seen you before how would you describe yourself in three words?

“Expect the unexpected!” We never limit ourselves to one lane of sound we like to explore and experiment all of our capabilities and influences.

Any final words?

Please come to our next show in march and hope to catch you soon!

Dead Freights

How did you find the gig did you enjoy it?

The second Beautiful Loser’s night was absolutely killer the bands were brilliant and its brilliant to get all of the bands in the corner of a good boozer with an old PA and just smash out a rock and roll set! Back to basics, that’s what the nights all about it was brilliant

Are you looking forward to the tour with the libs?

Europe’s going to be a completely new thing for us and something I hoped we would always do as a band. It’s going to be great to go around with the libertines and celebrate the 20thanniversary of one of our favourite albums of all time, very honoured in that regard.

What can people who don’t know you expect from you moving forwards?

We’ve got a whole bunch of releases cocked and barrelled, we’ve been focusing a lot on the live show – trying to make it as theatrical as possible. Were just four quite skinny lads trying to look like an octopus basically so were just trying to crack that. Our bass player Danny fedderz is getting into crocheting so we are going to do some handmade merch which is also another thing coming up.

An all round a successful evening in Camden! The Songbird look forward to the next one!

Words and Interviews by Katie Muszanskyj