Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Maccabees

3rd May, 2008. Concorde 2, Brighton UK. There is something naive and sweet about the Maccabees. The cute lyrics and poppy tunes probably disguise the amount of thought that has gone into making their first album. It would be easy to dismiss them as just another arty band without any real substance, such as Art Brut. But then you would be wrong. I love the album and the homemade videos and artwork. Playing a gig on their home ground and in a small venue, meant that tickets were gone before the concert was even mentioned in the Concorde newsletter. Luckily for me, a mutual friend was able to get me on the guest list. Never in my life, have I ever managed to get on a guest list and it was worth the wait to say those words to the bouncers. It made me feel like Mother Maccabee, haha. The place was packed and steaming and with three support bands, the evening started early. They all went down well, apparently everyone was mates with everyone else, but the place really took off when Orlando took to the stage. He didn't say much and often stood back from the mike to allow the crowd to sing the songs - they were word perfect of course. He seemed apologetic at playing new songs, but the crowd were putty in his hands and would have listened to anything as long as their favourites came along. Toothpaste kisses for example, was sung by predominantly shreaking, female voices. Latchmere was a riot and the set passed in a frantic buzz of jumping, screaming and community singing. I have never seen a show with a crowd that was so word perfect and above all, loud! A 10 out of 10 for the band and the crowd!
This is a link of 1 of my 4 videos on You Tube:
First Love