Live Review: Courting at The Camden Assembly
Photo by @heynathanclark via Twitter
Words by: Johnny Fry
Brandishing a cowbell and a drumstick, stomping around the stage as if waiting for an Enter Shikari pyro show. Courting are an eccentric bunch. Before the lights went down, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The only confidence I had was the crowd were seemingly (if you forget about some of the Radio 6 dads) well dressed in vintage clothes and trendy haircuts. This band are cocky in the best way, funny in ways seldom seen on stage, and damn right unpredictable.
Opening with the satirically unpatriotic, geezer-bashing track they call ‘Football’, my confidence in the crowd is cemented. My assumption that no one in the room would be watching Tottenham’s Europa Conference League fixture on catch up is confirmed. The irony in the room was dripping off the walls. Screams of “FOOTBALL”, racing around the Camden Assembly.
Continuing with more quintessentially British songs like ‘The Grand National’. The British themes and Camden setting left a Libertines taste in my mouth. Perhaps Pete Doherty fell into a time-gap, rolling down Regent’s Canal wearing a Union Jack flag and a porkpie hat, to be spat out years later at The Assembly, with a scouse accent and penchant for deadpan humor.
I found myself screaming with laughter at the dubious covers between songs. Forget stage banter, Courting have stage parody. Playing skits from popular culture, Friends singalongs onto Pink Panther riff riding, then intertwining Nicki Minaj’s ‘Starships’ into a second rendition of ‘Football’. During a cover of The Modern Lovers’ ‘Roadrunner’ Sean jumped into the crowd with a cowbell until finding a stage-worthy delegate. Frontman Sean always had the crowds’ best interests at heart.
When’s their next show? I’ll see you there.