I’ve been trying to see Camera Obscura live as far back as I can remember. Tuesday night’s sold out performance at Le Poisson Rouge finally ended the seemingly everlasting draught, as I finally got to see the Glasgow band live in the flesh.
Speaking to fans in the crowd, it seemed like a lot of other people were there after years of trying to see the band. One girl I spoke to asked me if I too was there in order to fill the duty of my high school self. While that wasn’t quite it, a case could be made that a lot of people went into the show with a heavy sense of nostalgia. The band were playing to support their very solid (if not somewhat underrated) new album Desire Lines, which came out just last year and only saw them play in support of She and Him. So this was technically their first proper headlining show for Desire Lines, with its tracks dominating the set.
Camera Obscura are veterans to the game at this point in the career, and it shows live. The band are very capable players, laying down tight performance of theirs tracks, sounding polished and seasoned along the way. Although Desire Lines related material was the main focus, they played plenty of older tracks. A highlight of the night being the 1-2 punch of “If Looks Could Kill” and “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”, which had everyone in the crowd singing along. Man it felt good to finally get to hear those tracks live.
After waiting all these years to finally see these guys, I can say it was totally worth the wait.
Setlist:
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