live review: the maccabees. alexandra palace, london. 8 june 2012.

After three successful albums and selling out venues such as Brixton several times over, The Maccabees must feel it is time to hit the big leagues. Last night they played the wonderful Alexandra Palace and anybody there will no doubt agree with the band. A set that comprised of tracks from each album fluttered seamlessly between ‘Feel the Follow’ to ‘About Your Dress’ to ‘Love You Better’. Orlando, Felix, Hugo, Sam & Rupert clearly loved every second as the sound filled the hall and kept an energetic crowd fully entertained. Orlando especially seemed to be thriving in the moment, even when their first play of ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ in a while showed that it had indeed been a while since they’d played it. Seven years after ‘X-Ray’ had ‘Latchmere’ had first caught my ear, The Maccabees are big league.

Oh yes, and…

They don’t play Latchmere anymore… THEY’RE ONLY FUCKING PLAYING LATCHMERE

— Tim Brown (@sockformation) June 8, 2012

Check out The Maccabees’ video for ‘Feel to Follow’ on this Friday and then #followfriday the band on twitter. And me while you’re there if you like.

album review: the maccabees. given to the wild. 9 january 2012. fiction records
(buy here)

i like it when a band doesn’t just sit back and rest on their laurels. releasing the same album again and again. whether throwing up three albums that you can tell are the same band but are completely different in sound, ala bloc party. or whether it is a natural progression of a band maturing. the latter is the stage at which we find the maccabees today.

listening back to colour it in now you can tell that is the album that was fun to make. whether singing about the, now famous, latchmere swimming baths or complaining about chewed pieces of lego making it tricky to build a castle the band were playing about with their sound. maybe they didn’t think they’d ever make. maybe this was just them having fun with friends. but they did make it. the album was a moderate success. certainly enough of a success to warrant a second album.

suddenly making music wasn’t just a pastime. this was their career. the perfect wall of arms was the album that set them on their way as a proper band. intelligent lyrics. soft instruments. not forgetting orlando weeks’ instantly recognisable voice.

this is of course all guess work. however it came about though, we are now enjoying given to the wild. and enjoying it we certainly are. another step forward and one that throws you around from light to dark from high to low. ‘unknow’ is like nothing they have released before, while ‘ayla’ wouldn’t feel out of place on either of their earlier records. every track is very maccabees but also very different. on ‘went away’ they even bring in vocals from elsewhere in the band. one of the white brothers i think.

what this album has done more than anything though is not make critics pleasantly surprised again. what this album has done has raised expectations in the band everywhere. even if we do a disservice to colour it in and put it down as just a fun debut, the maccabees have still released two excellent albums. that’s not a one-off fluke anymore. that’s a band with real talent.

8.5

this review originally appeared on the 405

so, reading festival, then. traditionally the home of hard rawk and the a-level celebration. on this year’s evidence, the latter very much dominated – you were never more than six feet away from a honey-limbed 18 year old in a class of 2010 hoodie. but who cares when the line-up’s this good.

pulled apart by horses made an early bid for performance of the weekend, killing the festival republic stage with a tight, energetic set. great song titles too, including ‘i punched a lion in the throat’; ‘e=mc hammer’ and ‘high five, swan dive, nose dive.’ from rock gods in the making to rock has-beens at the end of friday night, guns n roses turned up onstage an hour late and, my sources told me, performed a set nearly as bloated and lame as axl himself. i went for lcd soundsystem instead, who ran the gamut from their jokey electroclash beginnings through to the grown up dance music of their latest album this is happening. a class act.

onto saturday and mystery jets, who’ve come such a long way since their eel pie island, dad-in-the-band days. they might just have sneaked the song of the festival, not to mention the summer, with ‘after dark’, while the rest of the set showed a wholly enjoyable self confidence that left no one in any doubt that this band are here for the long haul.

a few notches up the bill, the maccabees combined a similar maturity and also self-deprecation at their thoroughly deserved main stage slot. singer orlando weeks’ voice has a real melancholy to it and songs such as ‘love you better’, ‘can you give it’ and ‘precious time’ got me a little teary eyed, i’m not ashamed to admit.

the libertines’ performance was on time and filled with all the hits and bromance you’d expect – get a room you two! note to axl rose, if pete doherty can do it, you’ve really got no excuse. arcade fire’s slot above the boys of albion was technically good and ticked all the boxes: great songs, lots of instrument swapping, régine chassagne’s silvery prom dress, but i just didn’t feel it as a headline performance. a lot of the festivalgoers, particularly the kids, seemed to agree, eschewing montreal’s finest to watch the rabble rousing pendulum on the radio one stage instead.

and then there was sunday. the weather didn’t know what to do – heavy rain, sun, wind – and the crowd were a little befuddled by that point too after a 48 hour diet of cider, bad burgers and no sleep. local natives soothed the bruised and the broken with gorgeous harmonies and songs about lost love. without question, one of my highlights. which is more than can be said for the drums. now, obviously, it’s not entirely their fault they were hyped to oblivion at the start of 2010, but really, boys, stop the posturing until you have the songs to match. otherwise, you’ll be just another bravery. and no one wants that.

living up to the promise of their early career, foals delivered a far more engaging performance that managed to be both intimate and huge at the same time. songs such as ‘spanish sahara’ and ‘miami’ from total life forever blended well with their earlier, more frenetic work.

over on the main stage it was left to the more mature artists – weezer, cypress hill and headliners blink 182 to the bring the party to a close in spectacular style. while klaxons’ set headlining the radio 1 stage was patchy – good when playing ‘echoes’ or anything from their first album, boring when attempting anything from their second effort – blink 182’s piece de resistance had the drum riser flipped upside down with the drummer suspended in the air. now that’s how to show the kids how it’s done.

words by helen parton

that right there is joshua river brown. he’s six, my son and lives in wales. it an total act of nepotism, i asked him to listen to some music on youtube while he’d staying with me for a few days. here are his thoughts.

summer camp. round the moon
“it’s good. i like the bike.”

the maccabees. it’s only love (video by barry pilling) – (‘first love’)
“the song is okay, but the video is really weird, but clever. especially the mouth.”

phoenix. lisztomania
“the song is very cool. my favourite. i like whatever that in the air is called.”

he’s a man of very few words. actually, he’s not. usually he won’t stop talking, but he sort of got straight to the point here.