The Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin kicked off festivities with an unusual collection of bands in Whelans on Friday night (3/05/13). Windings started off the night at an unexpectedly early time of 7 PM, which caught out this reviewer out (I was still having my tea at that stage!). Big Deal were on stage a little before 8 and proved that they are deserving of the hype/ praise they are receiving at the moment. They seemed a bit miffed with their status as second support and the small crowd in the venue due to their early start. You can’t blame the people who did show up though! Still, they’re a name to watch out for in the future and have a good blend of vocal styles and guitar.

New Young Pony Club were next up on stage and were probably the high light of the evening, and three-piece from London worked through a mix of new tunes and their more familiar older work. Lead singer Tahita Bulmer is a natural performer and worked the crowd nicely.

Next up were Tropics who featured synths, guitars and percussion. They were technically very good and played a nice blend of music, with touches of James Blake and the xx. They may need to add a visual element to their live performance though, to really grab the audience, as their set almost slipped past without anyone noticing, it was too subtle/ low key for it’s own good.

The final band of the evening was the weird and wonderful Dirty Beaches, the stage name of Alex Zhang Hungtai who is a Taiwanese-born Canadian musician. They were a three piece on the night, with guitars, keyboards and drums. They were the most visually interesting of the bands playing that night and certainly made an impact! It’s no surprise to hear that Alex also directs his own videos, as their sense of style was obvious. Their blend of carpenter-esque electronic beats, guitar and heavily distorted vocals was very intriguing, and left you with more questions than answers!

The most unusual thing about the night was how different all the performers were, but I guess that’s a positive. It’s good to see things from a number of viewpoints!