“A normal weekend in Camden, just with a lot more queuing,” is how one dejected punter described this year’s Camden Crawl. And some of the queues were biblical; but to be fair, this was hardly a normal weekend in Camden.

Little Boots, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The View, Kasabian and The Maccabees all took to the stage at The Roundhouse over the weekend, as a host of lesser known acts descended upon Caden’s mélange of smaller venues. tourdates surveyed the madness (and, yes, Madness were playing too), fell to its knees and began to crawl…

Despite the arrival of Little Boots (pictured) as everyone’s 2009 ‘one to watch’, you’d have to say the two main crowd-pullers at The Roundhouse over the weekend were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Friday) and Kasabian (Saturday), and the shows couldn’t have been more of a contrast.

Karen O is one of those blue moon performers who has become truly iconic. Perhaps the star of the naughties, there was a time when girls weren’t even allowed into nightclubs in Hoxton unless they had the Karen O / Hitler hairdo. And on Friday night she proved why this was so. Standing beneath a giant, inflatable eyeball she cut the kinds of shapes that have made the Yeah Yeah Yeahs consistently the coolest band of the last ten years – and O undoubtedly the most exciting performer.

With a set that included classics ‘Gold Lion’ and ‘Maps’ as well as stuff from the new album, the roof was well and truly lifted off The Roundhouse, making the Yeah Yeah Yeahs the real stars of the weekend.

Which brings us to Kasabian. It’s true, the hard talking Midlands five piece do have some big impact songs, but in a venue like The Roundhouse they just don’t really work. Lead singer, Tom Meighan’s, bizarre, strutting performance came across like a bad, pissed-up Jagger impression and left us with that depressing feeling that he was the only man in the room who was actually dancing. Obvious hits like ‘Club Foot’ and ‘Reason Is Treason’ got the crowd going and reminded us why we used to like Kasabian, but in reality this is a band that seems to be on the ropes.

Elsewhere, the boys from Bloody Awful Poetry took over The Lock Tavern for the day on Saturday, with a line-up that included The Dykeenies, Ryan O’Reilly, Cats On Fire and Dan Smith… not to mention lots of, well, bloody awful poetry.

Scottish headliners, The Dykeenies, surprised the audience (who were really a bit too pissed to be surprised by anything at this stage) with a not-so-secret acoustic performance.

Consisting of brothers, Brian and Andrew Henderson, the Cumberland four-piece played a low-key show of the kind of indie-art-pop that has led to comparisons with The Mystery Jets and The Futureheads. Having played venues such as the Meadowbank Stadium and Edinburgh Castle in the past, this intimate booking was a coup for organisers, and The Dykeenies proved they’re just as comfortable on the smaller stage.

Lower down the bill, Ryan O’Reilly and Dan Smith kept the low-fi, intimate set going, but the real star of the show were the guerrilla poetry renditions from Bloody Awful supremos, Keir Mills and Sagar Shah. With the point of the night being the sheer poor quality of the verse, these ‘bloody awful’ poets shone, and we very nearly forgot where we were. Then as we turned to leave, we saw the queue to get out, and we remembered we could only be at The Camden Crawl.

Michael Wylie-Harris