The Maccabees – UEA LCR- 14/03/2012

Just days after being announced as a headline act for Reading and Leeds Festival, The Maccabees grace UEA’s LCR on their "Given to the Wild" tour. Alex Hoss reports.

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Just days after being announced as a headline act for Reading and Leeds Festival, The Maccabees grace UEA’s LCR on their "Given to the Wild" tour. Still with something to prove, The Maccabees came out to rock the LCR, playing hits spanning all three of their studio albums, focusing predominantly on their latest release, Given to the Wild, released January 2012.

The support act came in the form of La Shark – an unsigned band from London. Having supported other big names, such as Mumford and Sons and Paloma Faith, they were well within their comfort zone. The best way I could describe them is good background music the crowd were content to talk amongst themselves, as La Shark rarely seemed to excite the crowd…until they left. Even then they seemed to just slide off stage without many noticing. I was just hoping their performance would be as compelling as their clothes, but it wasn’t to be.

Now that the LCR crowd seemed sufficiently lukewarm, things kicked off when The Maccabees strolled on and played ‘Child’ from their latest release. It was clear the older songs, however, seemed to get the biggest reaction, as everyone went mad for 'No Kind Words' four songs in. After playing a couple more from Given to the Wild before going into 'William Powers' and indie anthem 'X-Ray', Orlando Weeks and co. wrapped the set up with crowd favourites 'Love You Better' and 'Pelican'. After a short pause, they returned for a three song encore including 'Precious Time', which amusingly saw the youth of Norwich attempting a mosh pit, eventually finishing on the calm paced 'Grew Up at Midnight'.

One female fan declared the gig to be the best gig she’s ever seen at the LCR. Coming from a woman who witnessed other big stars at UEA, such as Coldplay and Panic! at the Disco would suggest the energy given by the London outfit was enough to win over the Norwich faithful. For me however, despite a solid performance, The Maccabees turned up with a no frills set, played a few tunes, Weeks mumbled incoherently into the microphone a bit, and then they left. Don't get me wrong though, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable evening of music – perhaps I was just expecting a bit more from the newly-announced headline act of Reading and Leeds Festival NME Stage.

Verdict – Perfect gig for pre-drinks

Photographs by Edd Smith Photography