Wee Pop: The Darlings, The Mexican Kids At Home, Little My, The Just Joans - The Enterprise

Moments later on the other side of town, I wander into The Enterprise in Camden. the street outside was packed, but inside its kinda quiet, three barmaids leap to my service. Upstairs the venue is packed.

On stage are two people, The Darlings, a singing ukelele girl and a hairy egg-shaker chap. They sounded a little like Hello Saferide. I only caught the last three songs of their set, which is a shame cos amongst their recorded output, they have the best cover of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long, which I've probably missed. I'd been listening it on iTunes all weekend.

Its sweet but generic music.

Next up are a really hairy five piece, The Mexican Kids At Home. They had one of those sitting on a wooden box percussion chaps, its been months since I saw one of them. There was a twee gentleman too, playing melodica, harmonica, keyboards and occasionally "doo doo doo" backing vocals. Topped off with boy and girl harmonies they were ace.

Rather looking forward to seeing them at Indietracks, sunshining, crowd of hundreds.

Its odd, its a really comfortable crowd compared to earlier today. Lost Music, Wee Pop, Pocketbooks, Just Joans, Bobby McGees, them French kids, Bowlie folk from last night. My nerves have calmed and I feel serene.

Its been an unsettled couple of days on the internet, my naked bike ride photies getting hundreds of views on Flickr, my art website rocketing up the Technorati authority rankings, then my origami video on BoingBoing. I've reached the top or at least the upper reaches, there's no more I can do. It does nothing for my tangible self-esteem.

Next on stage, the penultimate band of the night, Little My. Tonight they are a seven-piece, and they wear animal costumes. The bunny on bass is particularly cute. They sound a little like Bearsuit, but without the mania. Some of the songs are pretty neat and would be good listening on the coach home.

I think though, they sound too much like they're used to playing with loads of folk on stage.

One extra thing in their favour, they're bitter about not playing Indietracks and bitterness fucken rocks.

Then finally, one of the most eagerly awaited bands of the indiepop scene, The Just Joans. The buzz of anticipation in the crowd is palpable. I'm biased mind, I've seen them from the start, Adam J Smith passing me their demo cassette, the first gig, a sell out show in a tea room in Glasgow, bursting into London last year. I've seen them get better and better, more confident, more comfortable in their skin.

They're a six piece now, Fraser on bass, Doug on keyboards, Chris on lead guitar and sometimes accordian, Rowan on percussion, sharing vocal duties with Katie, and centre stage, David Pope.

A fine set, with new songs and old ones, polished so they sparkle. The songs are getting better than the old ones.

They have a new EP out on Wee Pop, new songs, "What Do I Do Now" will stick in your head for months, how do we pencil them in for T in the Park '09, joined on stage by Louise Wener. And their even newer song, "You're not gonna pull" is going to set the indie dancefloors on fire.

They name-checked me, they name-checked me. Thanking Thor and Camila from WeePop for their breakfast, and Trev Lost Music for putting on the gig, and then me. My eyes welled up, I was gonna start greeting.

Its been one of those weeks, its been one of those weekends, its been one of those days. But the Just Joans, they made everything okay.

Bands
The Darlings
The Mexican Kids At Home
Little My
The Just Joans