Camera Not So Obscura

When we showed up at Neumo’s last night, the setlist times indicated that poppy Glaswegians Camera Obscura would be playing from 10:35pm-12:35am. Two hours of twee? Are you kidding? We thought (in our best Tracy Morgan voice) that was krazy, but thankfully, the band only played the standard hour plus encore.

Portastatic kicked off the night with Superchunk frontman/Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan’s earnest vocals and straightforward shimmery pop. Then the six members of Camera Obscura took the stage right on time, their Scottish accents so thick they could have passed for fake, or at least exaggerated. They launched right into the pop, with lead songstress Tracyanne’s vocals a little shot from the past month of touring. We can’t complain too much, considering lately we have also had a touch of the consumption.

Camera Obscura covered most of the songs off of their last two albums, sounding like Belle and Sebastian meets the Concretes. Not that that's a bad thing, but it doesn't always make for the most enthralling show. Just when we got to the point where we weren’t sure how much more hot-ass under-renovation Neumo’s and twee we could take, Camera Obscura launched into a four-pronged pop assault with lots of handclaps and “Hey Lloyd I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” [mp3], and we were back into the show. The chatty Scots kept things going and took the occasional odd old song/b-side request from the crowd (“Houseboat,” but not “Alaska” or “Return to Send Her”). Still, we were glad when they announced that they were only going to play a couple more songs, rather than the previously scheduled additional hour.

Photo care of Flickr / user Part-Time Lover.