Your Camden GIG PICKS for 10th-19th August
What’s on in Camden this week?!
OUR CMDN PICKS FOR YOU
Discover the best live music in Camden this week,
between 10th and 19th of August 🙂
My favourite gigs this week if you want to explore live music in the next few days!
This week is full of amazing tribute bands playing in Camden:
The Doors, Motörhead, Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Joy Division and more!
If I’ve missed anything, email me nilaya@camden-live.com
THURSDAY 10th of August
GENERATION + MANIA + RAY NOIR at Black Heart – Glam Punk Pop Rock
Recommended by: Nila
“HOTEL ROOM DESTROYING, PARENT SHOCKING, HEADLINE MAKING ROCKSTARS.”
Generation make an outrageous return with their first single of 2023 “Death To The Phony Rockstar”. “The song is an ode to the online ‘haters’ who would rather see me crucified than worshipped”, says frontman, Dean Carne. Founded by brothers James & Dean Carne, with the addition of power-house drummer, Hattie Steel, Generation have garnered a loyal following on Tiktok and are set to storm the music industry in all their high-heeled glory. / Tickets £9.00
Marcos Valle at Jazz Cafe – Samba Bossa Psychedelic
Recommended by: Nila
Samba & bossa to psychedelic MPB & beach boogie, Marcos Valle is one the most important musical artists in Brazil’s history. There are not many artists in any era in recorded music history that can boast a career as stylistically varied as Marcos’. The renaissance man of Brazilian pop has worked with Leon Ware, Sarah Vaughan, and Chicago; seen his music sampled by Jay Z, Kanye West, Childish Gambino, Madlib, and Kaytranada; had his songs recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bebel Gilberto – even Emma Bunton of The Spice Girls once took on his classic ‘Os Grilos (The Crickets Sing For Anamaria)’. A true legend of global music, nobody gets the party started like Marcos Valle./ Tickets: £30
FRIDAY 11th of August
The Sun Ra Arkestra featuring Marshall Allen at the Forge – Jazz
Recommended by: Nila
“One of the great big-band leaders, pianists, and surrealists of jazz” – New York Times “The missing link between Duke Ellington and Public Enemy” – Rolling Stone Composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn, Sun Ra led his “Intergalactic Arkestra” of thirty-plus musicians in a career that ranged from boogie-woogie and swing to be-bop, free jazz, fusion, and New Age music until his death in 1993. The Sun Ra Arkestra still perform today under the direction of long-time Sun Ra collaborator and alto-saxophonist Marshall Allen. The Big Band play fully dressed in intergalactic garb influenced by the spirit of Ancient Egypt and will perform a selection of Sun Ra classics./Tickets £41.25
Riders on the Storm at the Blues Kitchen – The Doors Covers <3
Recommended by: Nila
Meet me at the very front of the stage – I’m one of the biggest Jim Morrison fans, the Doors will always be my favourite band.
We celebrate one of the greatest rock bands of all time, with our ‘Riders On The Storm: A Night Celebrating The Doors’ special. Performing all their greatest hits live and in full, our world-famous house band lead us through the storm, as they shread through hit by hit. Expect to hear all the classics including ‘People Are Strange’, ‘Riders On The Storm’, ‘Break on Through (To the Other Side)’, ‘Light My Fire’ & more… After the lightning first set, our house band of London’s finest musicians will then come together with a soul set that’ll have you dancing all the way through ’til the early hours! / Tickets £5
The Allergies at the Jazz Cafe – Funk Soul
Recommended by: Nila
“The Allergies are neck deep in the world of scratchy samples…This is truly funk and soul for the 21st century” – Craig Charles, BBC 6 Music. Due to high demand, we’ve added a second show after their recent Jazz Cafe sell-out. Delighting dancefloors and radio airwaves for nearly 7 years now, The Allergies’ brand of feel-good funk and hyped-up hip hop has seen them drop one dynamite LP after another. Live sets are filled to the brim with party-starting heat, and their latest record Tear The Place Up showcases their knack for churning out soul-sampling bangers with deep infectious grooves throughout. Their high-octane live show features LA rap legend Andy Cooper, the mighty pipes of soul sensation Marietta Smith and the blazing horns of sax supremo James Morton. They’ll be raising the roof even higher in 2023. / Tickets: Standing £15.50
SATURDAY 12th of August
Motörheadache at Dingwalls – Motörhead Coverband
Recommended by: Nila
Another one where you can find me at the very front of the stage 😉 Luckily enough, I managed to see Lemmy live at Rock am Ring in 2012, I will always cherish this memory, RIP Lemmy.
Join us in celebrating the release of Motörhead’s debut album – Released 12 August 1977 – on Saturday 12 august 2023 with Europe’s best Motörheadache. Motörheadache have toured the UK and Europe extensively from February 2016 onwards, with more than 200 dates at Bike Rallys, large festivals and showcase gigs in O2 Academy venues in Glasgow, Newcastle and London. The main body of their set list comprises a large number of songs from Motörhead’s fast Eddie Clarke era, regarded by many fanas the classic era. Songs include Ace of Spades, Bomber, Overkill, Iron Fist, The Hammer, Damage Case and the thunderous Motörhead. The band also play material written by Motörhead from 1983 through to 2015. / Tickets £16.50
Unknown Pleasures + Ping Pong Disco + Nothing Dreams at Dublin Castle –Joy Division Coverband Post-punk gothic rock new wave
Recommended by: Nila
Unknown Pleasures- These guys and their primal, punky, poised and perky take on the incredible Joy Division canon have been doing the rounds as long as Buggerbear…we’re a match made in heaven, haha. Always an ace night out…yes ‘Ian Curtis’ has adapted the trademark moves a tad since he ahem died and maybe slightly more padded than you recall, and Peter Hook seems to have transmogrified into a goff Yul Bryner etc etc but don’t watch that….a brilliant and lovestruck tribute to adore. Ping Pong Disco– Need A Drink’s pounding teutonic beats channel Front 242 or Nitzer Ebb, while telsewhere PPD recall early Kasabian and Bowie’s funkier periods. Meanwhile, ‘Scratcher’s nifty sounds and samples have a Sleafords Mods-do-hip-hop vibe and ’Super Vegetable’ recalls John Lydon’s collaboration with Leftfield. Nothing Dreams – out of Oxford, a dark, post punk informed alternorock band with nuances of both local heroes Supergrass and Radiohead, but with a rocked up dream pop vision all their own. / Tickets: £10 in advance
LONDON BLUEGRASS BAND at Green Note – bluegrass
Recommended by: Nila
From the small but thriving bluegrass scene in London, the London Bluegrass Band emerged in 2021 from its roots in sessions and jams across the city. The collective, dedicated to showcasing and fostering the bluegrass scene in the capital, is made from a diverse, international group of musicians who love bluegrass old and new, and love sharing it! The line-up consists of; – IBMA Momentum Vocalist 2021 nominee Leanne Thorose on vocals and mandolin – Singer, player and luthier extraordinaire, Cedric Thorose on Dobro and vocals – ‘Papa’ Tommy Amenta from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on guitar and vocals – London Bluegrass Band director and British Bluegrass News editor Chris Lord on banjo – Prolific performing artist, Pete ‘Hutch’ Thomas holding it down on double bass / Tickets: £ 12.00
SUNDAY 13th of August
D.R.I. / DIRTY ROTTEN IMBECILES – 40th Anniversary Tour at Underworld – Thrash Hardcore Punk
Recommended by: Nila
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (often abbreviated and referred to as D.R.I.) is an American crossover thrash band that formed in Houston in 1982 and would later relocate to San Francisco. The band is currently composed of two of its founding members, vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as drummer Rob Rampy and bass player Greg Orr. D.R.I. never gained a mainstream audience, but the integration of their hardcore punk roots with thrash metal influences was a stylistic catalyst for their contemporaries – most notably Suicidal Tendencies, Corrosion of Conformity, Stormtroopers of Death, the Cro-Mags, Nuclear Assault, Adrenalin O.D., and Cryptic Slaughter – alongside whom they are considered to be one of the major pioneers of what would later be called “crossover thrash”. These bands had a heavy influence on modern thrash metal. To date, D.R.I. has released seven full-length studio albums. Other than three new songs on the 2016 EP But Wait… There’s More!, they have not released a full-length studio album since Full Speed Ahead in 1995. Despite this, the band has continued to tour almost every year, and gone on hiatus intermittently, notably between 2004 and 2009, when Cassidy was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since at least 1998, D.R.I. has been working on their eighth full-length studio album, which remains unreleased. / Sopport from Noogy and Wounded Not Dead / Tickets: £29.28
FRIDAY 18th of August
The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Camden’s Blues Kitchen – no further description needed
Recommended by: Nila
Another one where I’ll be right at the front 😀
Join us as we pay homage to the greatest guitarist in history, Jimi Hendrix. With songs that inspired a generation of musicians, his legacy lives on another night at ours, where we’ll be bringing you ‘The Jimi Hendrix Experience: A Night Dedicated to Jimi Hendrix’. Our world-famous house band will be performing live renditions of a string of Hendrix hits, fom ‘Hey Joe’, ‘All Along the Watchtower’, ‘Purple Haze’, ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and many more, so prepare for a foxy night, and get yourself down here Voodoo Chile! This will be followed by our live band performing a set of non-stop soul anthems, playing original classics from the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Brown, The Supremes, Ray Charles and more…/ Tickets: £5
DOMKRAFT + SLOMATICS + OLD HORN TOOTH at Black Heart– Doom
Recommended by: Nila
Okay, I’m going to need to clone myself for this night, if there is a Doom event in Camden, I surely cannot miss it, especially with this lineup!
DOMKRAFT: Bassist/singer Martin Wegeland, guitarist Martin Widholm and drummer Anders Dahlgren came together in Stockholm, bonding over the likes of Spacemen 3, Monster Magnet, Sleep and Hawkwind, plus a fascination with trudging, 10-minute epics. The band drew from the heaviest of their combined influences to craft a sound that blended towering dirges, mindbending psychedelia and hypnotic minimalism, embodied on their monolithic self-released debut EP in 2015. Full-length The End of Electricity arrived on Magnetic Eye Records in 2016, leading to festival appearances at Desertfest and Psycho Las Vegas. Sophomore LP Flood landed in October 2018, earning an 8/10 from Metal Hammer, 8.5/10 from Rock Hard, and 8/10 from Deaf Forever. 2019 saw the release of the 3-song Slow Fidelity EP, which included a 13-minute epic with guest vocals from Lea of Besvarjelsen, Marty of Slomatics and the legendary Mark Lanegan. Domkraft has performed at Desertfests Belgium and Berlin, Blow Up in Helsinki, Northern Discomfort in Copenhagen, Psycho Las Vegas, Hostsabbat in Oslo, Fall of Man in Munich, Sonic Whip in Nijmegen and closed out the 2019 Sonic Blast Moledo. Domkraft’s third album Seeds (2021) finds a band whose previous records favored apocalyptic themes focusing on the idea of emerging from the ashes and starting anew, of building something different and better beyond the apocalypse.
SLOMATICS: Formed in Belfast late 2004, Slomatics aim to reduce riffs to a primal state of heaviness, to produce music which whilst imploding under it’s own weight, creates a a joyous and euphoric state of wellbeing which can only be obtained with a slew of vintage amplifiers, fuzz pedals and analog synths
OLD HORN TOOTH: London based Doom//Stoner Metal//Noise trio playing slow, heavy, fuzzed out riffs and hypnotic vocals with a sinister undercurrent of noise. Down tuned and riff driven, Old Horn Tooth create music that is a contemplation of the dread and torments of life, modern relationships and the power hungry society we live in.
Wild Flowers – Fiddler’s Elbow – 60s rock 90s grunge pop punk
Recommended by: Nila
Wild Flowers (Jessica Martins, Natasha Dow, & Joe Mac) are an original female-fronted rock/pop-punk trio from Portugal with a high-octane sound spanning from 60s girl groups to 90s grunge, while keeping a modern feel. Influences include bands such as Blondie, The Runaways, and The Go-Gos. Incorporating a high-energy live show with a unique floral stage design, the band strives to spread the joy of live and original music, while hopefully inspiring young women to rock. They have recently completed a European tour with upcoming dates for August 2023 in the UK, and are currently finishing up their debut self-titled EP, to be released August 11th, 2023. Their first single, “Shady Lady”, was released worldwide, along with a music video, on July 21st, 2023./ Tickets on the door
SATURDAY 19th of August
Nirvana UK + Pearl Scam – 90s grunge
Recommended by: Nila
Wow what’s happening this week with all these amazing tribute bands coming to Camden?!
Again, one I wont’ miss! I love Pearl Jam way too much – Was lucky enough to have caught them live last year at Hyde Park!
Letting you know about this one before it sells out: The best Grunge tribute bands around! Nirvana UK are returning to The Electric Ballroom in the heart of Camden Town, London on Saturday 19th August following their packed out show in 2022. This years show see’s the ultimate double bill featuring a tribute to Pearl Jam ‘Pearl Scam’ creating the ultimate 90s grunge package on one stage on one night. / Tickets £17.50
Enjoy this week in Camden with extraordinary live music!
Let us know where you go or if there are other events we have missed 🙂
We started Camden Live to get more people into the incredible music scene here: one of the best in the world with so much going on that it’s hard to keep up. We want to be your guide, let us be your companion, as you explore and discover what is going on!
Please share the live music love ♡ Follow us on socials @cmdnlive, support artists and even better share with other music lovers. It makes a big difference and we send our thanks in advance.
Point is, we’re out here making something in Camden for Camden. For the bands from around here, and the ones who are arriving from god-knows-where stinking of van fumes. And obviously, for everyone who likes keeping them on the road.
Rock on!