With an impeccable reputation for live music, DIY venues, and thrilling punk gigs, Camden is one of the UK’s strongest towns for rock music, and Camden Rocks festival each year helps solidify this. With 400 bands playing over the weekend of June 1st & 2nd, the festival is split over 20 of Camden’s finest venues, from mosh-pit indulging DIY spaces like The Dublin Castle, to the intimate Hawley Arms, to larger club spaces like The Electric Ballroom. This year, the lineup is a fantastic mix of indie, punk, and rock’n’roll, and we have narrowed the lineup down to our top 5 Bands to Watch
- Strange Bones Dingwalls, Saturday 1st, 6pm-7pm
A deafening formidable riot on stage, Strange Bones fuel vivacious punk scat with a grungy foundation. Their sets are always fuelled by an insatiable feel of chaos and urgency, their manic deranged tracks undercutting a politicised edge. Expect intense mosh pits and crowd surfing, with front man Bobby known to jump from amps directly into the crowd beneath
Top tracks: Here Come The Wolves & Give Me The Sun
2. Projector The Monarch, Saturday 1st, 4pm-4:30pm
Cleverly blending grunge with an indie pop sensibility, Projector create a beautifully complex shoe gaze vibe with their music. The dreamy indie breeziness is undercut by deafening bass lines, which builds up an interestingly 90s based sound
Top tracks: Go Ahead & Break Your Own Heart
3. False Heads Camden Assembly, Sunday 2nd, 4:15pm-5pm
Scathing and raw post punk trio False Heads are the most exciting live band at the minute, their music vigorous and powerful, their gritty punk rigour riveting and dynamic. Front man Luke has the passion and attitude needed to convey the band’s ballsy angst perfectly, and his messy riffs slice through the deafening bass lines from Jake and the furore of drummer Barney. They have cultivated a special reputation for themselves as East London’s most exciting band, their live sets fuelled with power and dynamism; certainly not a band to miss live at this year’s Camden Rocks
Top tracks: Slew & Fresh Ink
4. Dirty Orange Music And Beans, Sunday 2nd, 6:30pm-7pm
Merging together old school rock’n’roll (think Hendrix, Rolling Stones, and The Strokes) with a fresh indie-punk vigour, Dirty Orange are always wonderful live; they use retro reverb effects and distortions when playing to amp up a 70s rock sound, accompanied by the accented vocal of lead singer George, yet they still manage to maintain a freshness to their sound. Incredibly catchy on record, and extremely fun live, Dirty Orange’s set will be a very special one
Top tracks: Council Estate & Time Again
5. Gaygirl The Good Mixer, Sunday 2nd, 9:15pm-10pm
Brooding and abstract, Gaygirl blend a messy punk aura with shoegaze indie psychedelia, a very new and innovative sound to get from a band. What I love about Gaygirl is their ability to blend their dreamy indie-pop cloud with a more scathing and intricate punk bite, a rawness and messiness softly layered over their sound. Live, the band are sonic and gripping, and they create a wonderfully hedonistic atmosphere
Top tracks: Sick Note & Paralydise
Additional bands to catch… JW Paris, The Black Roses, Cavalcade, The Pigeon Detectives, King Nun, Pretty Vicious, Brain Ape, Rascalton, Asylums, Queen Zee, Juicebox, Hands Off Gretel, The Gulps, Rews, The Pearl Harts, The Howlers, Panic Island, Dutch Mustard & The Scruff
Hear our Camden Rocks playlist below…
Tickets for Camden Rocks are only £40 per day, or £70 for the whole weekend – this festival is really one of the best for new music, and it plays such a pivotal role each year in its support of the DIY scene, so go and grab a ticket now!
Available here
