Cajun Dance Party

“Thank you for coming, I love you all” a polite and very welcome introduction to the expectant crowd at the first date on their first nationwide tour. After a triumphant appearance at the recent Glastonbury mud bath and with the release of their debut single way back in April. CDP have rightly or wrongly been touted by many magazines as ‘the must see band’ of this year. It would seem on the evidence of tonight’s performance that these statements are well founded. As the saying goes age is just a number and in this case it applies, at just 16 and 17 years of age this young five piece from London have crafted through the eyes of guitarist Robbie Stern some of the most infectious and emotionally lead music that has been heard in this Bedford venue.

They arrive on stage to polite applause, lead singer Danny Blumberg arriving with the conventional tambourine tucked under one arm and the less conventional walking stick in the other. The walking stick will later be involved in the most spontaneous and raucous part of the evening, but before that CDP kicked off proceedings with ‘The Race’. It is clear early on that Blumberg is keen on providing a spectacle and engaging the crowd using traditional as well as unconventional ways. The more unorthodox of these actions included running in and out of the assembled crowd and even standing in one of the corners of the venue. This spontaneity seems to manifest from his uncontrollable excitement and being in the audience it is very infectious sight to behold.

As they rip through there short but beautifully crafted set including songs ‘Buttercups’, ‘Colourful Life’ and ‘Amylase’ which Blumberg informs the crowd is the next single adding “You are the first people we have told” the crowd respond encouragingly to this personal comment as the set draws to its climatic end. After the briefest of departures from the stage in which a healthy chant of “encore encore” takes place they return to rapturous applause and proceed to repay the expectant crowd with set closer ‘The Next Untouchable’ and as expected it provides the first real sing a long as well as the ‘walking stick’ incident mention earlier in which Danny thrusting walking stick into the air as it hit the chorus manages to catch a ceiling tile which crashes to the ground narrowly missing bassist Max Bloom, this is then smashed up and handed to the now heaving mass gathered at the front.

There is little doubt that Bedford has witnessed something special.