#7 Maccabees//Village Underground//London//Tuesday 1st November

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So November has arrived and for me the first week is spent snowed under doing my other job (Europe's finest heating engineer) i was 'on call' all week, this means i get called out at all hours of the day and night to rescue little old dears with no heating, i know, i know, i'm a hero! (and just incase you were wondering, no, i don't get chatted up by saucy housewives on a regular basis, i know, i cant believe it either). I could not miss the return to London of The Maccabees, luckily after a bit of sweet talking my little brother Lee (Europe's second finest heating engineer) agreed to cover my shift. Thanks Lee, you're a Ledge!

My pals and i are Maccabees veterans, we must have seen the boys at least ten times, loved them since day one so the fact that they hadn't played in London for what must be going on a year, meant there was a real sense of excitement about this gig. The boys did their bit for independent record stores. You could only get tickets for the gig in person from rough trade and it was limited to 2 tickets each, the day they went on sale i rushed down there unwashed in the clothes from the night before after being out raving all night, that's dedication, i wouldn't do that for just anyone you know!

SET LIST

1, Child

2, Feel to follow

3, Lego

4, First love

5, One hand holding

6, Can you give it

7, Pelican

8, Precious time

9, No kind words

10, Forever i've known

11, William Powers

12, Love you better

Encore

13, X-ray

14, Wall of arms

15, Grew up at midnight

Check out these videos for yourself:

No kind words: http://youtu.be/605fY2RqTkI

Love you better: http://youtu.be/8fs1wkwAMQc

X-ray: http://youtu.be/NNXcHJFtVeI

Village underground is a great little venue just off Shoreditch high street in the heart of East London, i've been to millions of raves here but never seen a live band, inside it's like a brick built cave, it seems massive due to its high ceiling but in reality it is really small and intimate, the venue suited the band down to the ground, great shout whoever booked this. As the boys walked on stage they were greeted like old friends, they have a real hardcore fan base, i see many of the same faces at all their gigs, they are a bit like The Rifles in that they don't get much press but have amassed loads and loads of fans through word of mouth and basically just being a shit hot live band. It's well known they are getting ready to drop their third album and they started tonight with two new songs, 'Child' and 'Feel to follow', both were brilliant and after hearing them for the first time i have no doubt that the next album is going to be even better than the last which was amazing, i personally think they are up there with The Horrors as the best bands in Britain right now, every new release better than the last. The lads ran through the classics from albums one and two and were bouyed by the reaction of the crowd who were going mental all night, Felix in particular always looks like an excited puppy up onstage he goes so mad i kept thinking he might fall off any minute, lead singer Orlando, who is often a little shy between songs was even dropping banter with the crowd left right and centre. The whole set was great, an encore was demanded with the boys coming back on for massive renditions of  'X-ray' and 'Wall of arms'. They even had the balls to finish with a new song 'Grew up at midnight', top tune and great finale.

NITTY GRITTY


Venue: as i said, really good, great sound, defo try and see a band here, or at least come to a rave.

Drinks: hmmm pub prices but your getting cans, i do love drinking out of a can, men behaving badly style but it really irks me giving over three and half quid for a can, getting merked really aint we

Crowd: always a great crowd at maccabees gigs, true fans, proper fans, i also saw a couple of Bombay Bicycle Club members in attendance

All i care about is the threads and haircuts?: well they just look pretty normal, Orlando is a bit cool, loving that both White brothers, Felix and Hugo have grown their hair really long! wish i had the patience, looks wicked when they're swooshing it around riffing away together on their guitars!

ACE FACE
(you lucky things, buy one get one free this week)

Del Minney, quantity surveyor, Deptford
Ross Hallam, equity trader
(yes i actually do know quantity surveyors and equity traders! mental!)

What did you make of tonight lads?
Really good, their sound has really evolved just like it did from albums one to two, the first album was great but the second had tunes that were ultimately better made in terms of complexity, depth and maturity, hearing the new tunes tonight, its clear they are ready to move on again. i loved that they played a load of old stuff but the new tunes have really wet my appetite for the third album


What else you listening to at the minute?
Bit like how the macs are changing, i used to be a real indie kid but my tastes are getting a lot darker now,  im listening to a lot of deeper music, xx, pj harvey, stuff like that, i love gorillaz also quite into reggae and dub at the moment. I gotta recommend LA SHARK too, defo check them out. 


Cheers boys, blinding, i'll defo get on La Shark,


So it was another cracking gig from The Maccabees, roll on January and their Brixton show!
Ok guys so last weekend i was at the fly bermuda festival in berlin, now i'm not gonna pretend i'm a bible on techno so a picture diary of all the cool people i met and things i saw will have to do, Stay tuned!