NME Tour with The Maccabees + Bombay Bicycle Club + The Big Pink + The Drums @ Birmingham Academy, 11th February 2010

MACABEES

My thoughts leading up to tonight’s NME Tour gig were mainly, ‘the audience is going to be young!’ And indeed they were. Well mostly anyway. To be fair, there was a decent number of older, more experienced gig goers huddled together in the sensible viewing areas i.e. the ones where you’re less likely to be either a) hit in the head by flying drink container or b) hit in face by a pogo-ing teenager’s elbow.

Tonight’s gig comes bang in the middle of the current NME Awards Tour which traditionally features four of the top current indie bands around. In recent years the NME tour has been headlined by The Killers, Glasvegas and The Cribs with impressive supporting line ups amongst the other bands who have (mostly) gone on to achieve a decent amount of success. I think this tradition of supporting up and coming bands is partly the reason for tonight’s gig at the Academy being sold out.

The Big Pink

I arrived just in time to catch the start of the second band on the bill, Big Pink. Unfortunately, I was unprepared for the 19:30 performance of opening act The Drums so apologies to any fans of theirs. Even if you’ve never heard of the Big Pink, you’ve probably heard the song ‘Dominos’ which crops up on TV and radio quite a lot. Their music is pretty much dark electro/rock whilst retaining a pop ethic. Current single, ‘Velvet’ is currently doing the rounds on the radio and crowd responded well to this and ‘Dominos’. The front man made a good effort at getting the crowd going and in what became to be a running theme of the evening described the crowd as being the best so far on the tour. After a few songs, Big Pink made their exit for the quick turnaround before the penultimate band of the evening, Bombay Bicycle Club. The Big Pink made a decent sound, if not a bit repetitive, and I wasn’t disappointed when they left the stage after about 6 songs.

Bombay Bicycle ClubBombay Bicycle Club

London based, Bombay Bicycle Club have been touted by the NME for a couple of years now and began to make waves last year, featuring regularly on the BBC6 music playlist since. It must have been just before 21:00 when they took to the stage and I think it’s fair to say that the mostly young crowd went a bit crazy for them. The band’s front man, Jack Steadman, certainly puts a lot of energy into his performance when he’s not singing and it definitely helped fuel the crowd. Well, that and the £3.70 pints of lager (in my day etc etc). In many ways Bombay Bicycle Club’s sound is a lot like tonight’s headliners, The Maccabees, just slightly softer and not as atmospheric. Jack Steadman’s voice on the quieter songs such as ‘Always Like This’ was engaging and the lyrics decent too so this, I imagine, is a big part of their appeal. On the louder songs such as ‘Evening Morning’ his voice adapts to a more Brian Molko from Placebo style. Credit to my girlfriend for pointing that one out to me. They sound like they take influences from a relatively wide spectrum for an indie band and that’s always a good thing. Whereas, the Big Pink had been pretty straight down the line / predictable even, at least Bombay Bicycle Club seemed to show a bit more variety and adventure.

It was around 22:00 by the time the hotly anticipated headliners, The Maccabees, took to the stage to great welcome from the audience. The 5 piece from London were accompanied by a small brass section throughout their performance which added an interesting layer to the music. The Maccabees have built a strong fan base over the last few years and have toured quite heavily in support their two albums to date. I certainly got the sense that the band were completely in sync with each other and take genuine pleasure in putting on a show. Front man, Orlando Weeks, voice is at times quite folky but is also fairly powerful on the louder songs. All in all not too dissimilar to the vocal style of the Bombay Bicycle Club front man although much more appealing in my opinion.

THUMBNAIL MACABEESMACABEES

The band moved quickly in between songs and have a growing back catalogue to draw from but they still made time to respond to the audience. As with the other bands on the bill, The Maccabees again thanked the audience for being by far the best on the tour so far. A cynical person might just say that this is said every night but all the bands did genuinely seem to be having a great time on stage and apparently everyone was ‘buzzing backstage’. I did enjoy the energy in The Maccabees performance and it’s easy to see how they’ve developed a strong fan base with performances like this. There’s definitely more to them than so many other current indie bands praised by the NME and other media. The bands second album, Wall of Arms, released last year was produced by a former collaborator with Arcade Fire and Bjork and the production tracks such as ‘Love You Better’ definitely hint towards the former. On the subject of collaborators I was hoping that a performance of re-issued single, ‘Empty Vessels’, would see a cameo from Roots Manuva who has re-recorded the song with band but unfortunately this didn’t happen. Maybe the London leg of the NME Tour will hold a few surprises.

It was my first visit to the new Academy and the venue is definitely geared up for the bigger bands. I wasn’t too impressed with the big screen above the main audience area showing adverts for ‘Skins’ in between bands but hey. I won’t necessarily be rushing out to buy any of the bands records either but The Maccabees in particular would definitely be worth checking out live if you get the opportunity. Overall it was a good night’s entertainment, the only negative was the (small) fight that broke out right next to me towards the end of The Maccabees set!

Review – Chris Thompson
Photos – Emma Stokes

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3 thoughts on “NME Tour with The Maccabees + Bombay Bicycle Club + The Big Pink + The Drums @ Birmingham Academy, 11th February 2010

  1. Hey Chris, well done. Your review sums up the night quite nicely 🙂
    I was quite worried about how a few of the images would turn out, as that vivid red colour was hard to get rid of. In the end, I think the night was awesome! Cool review.

  2. Chris, your review made for a good, flowing read. I can empathise with you on your feelings towards the Big Pink, I saw a gig recently and was hoping for it to finish sooner rather than later…
    Don’t be too put off by the venue, I’ve been there a few times and not once have I seen a ‘Skins’ advert. As for beers…? don’t get me started.

  3. Thanks for the comments. The photo’s turned out well Emma. I think the Skins advert must have been a target for that audience. I definitely prefer the Academy where it is now rather then the old location too.

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