Hidden Cameras – St Leonards Church, London 23/08/08

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Photograph by Ama Chana

One may note the slight irony of an LGBT fundraiser taking place in a place of Christian worship, but after witnessing The Hidden Cameras’ revelatory show at St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch one couldn’t help be struck by how fitting a venue it was. Despite their name, which to this reviewer evokes images of gloomy Interpol-esque miserabilia, Joel Gibb’s “gay church folk choir” are as glorious a live band to come out of Canada since Arcade Fire first stomped onto the scene.

A rag-tag crew of indie mentalists merging the idiosyncratic folk-pop of the Decemberists with the life-affirming energy of the Polyphonic Spree. The Hidden Cameras are nonetheless refreshingly free of the pomposity that sometimes makes the whimsy of their peers hard to swallow, and although I feel their recorded material can sometimes be grating, I seriously doubt many that witnessed their stunningly vibrant performance will have left unconverted.

The whole band, from the startlingly intense Joel Gibb to their boundlessly effervescent British violinist (The big bear from Hackney) looked liked they were having a whale of a time as they cut through songs such as ‘AWOO’, ‘Learning The Lie’ and ‘Death Of A Tune’. A surprise guest appearance from an inebriated Patrick Wolf was a nice touch, although tonight this most flamboyant of performers was content to stay out of the limelight and bash happily away on a tambourine and
piano.

During ‘Golden Streams’ and ‘Ban Marriage’, two masked go-go dancers clad in little more than golden hotpants could be found gyrating away around the church, at one point climbing on to the altar which along with some of Gibb’s more racy lyrics may have given the vicar a mild heart attack, but it was for the mostly light hearted, good-natured fun.

If there’s one thing that hinders them, it’s a lack of a killer song that would launch them into the indie stratosphere – although what was played was often fantastic, I was never completely blown away. It did seem that their songs did often fall into the “samey” category sadly but that aside, there’s little to fault- if church services were normally that joyous then by God, I’d convert in an instant.

Hidden Cameras on MySpace