The Sunshine Underground, The Maccabees - Islington Academy, London - Monday 18th December 2006

This was an O2 Live Session gig, for free, courtesy of XFM. In fact, they seemed to be struggling to give tickets away, as all of my mates that entered the competition, won tickets - and one was even offered more if he wanted them. Strange, because in the Sunshine Underground and the Maccabees, they had 2 of the most exciting up-and-coming bands in the country on the bill.

After an opening act that I only caught the final song from, it was The Maccabees who opened up my evening. I knew their single called Latchmere already, but not much else. They played a fairly short set, but I was very impressed with what I saw - they had very catchy tunes, and a good number of string potential singles in their set. Many of the crowd were obviously more familiar with them than I was, because they were playing to an already-converted audience at the front of the venue. I'll definitely look to see this lot again when I can - I suspect when they support somebody else that I'm going to see.

The Sunshine Underground were the headline act, again, a band that I'd previously heard a couple of songs by, and been impressed. If the Maccabees were "very good", the Sunshine Underground were "great". Pretty much every song sounded instantly good, which is always a great sign when hearing a band and their songs for the first time. The whole set was a huge party, and not knowing the majority of the songs really didn't matter - they were that good. I can honestly say that their set was a total revelation - I can't remember knowing so little of a band's output before going to see them, but emerging so converted in the space of one short set.

I will definitely be looking to see the Sunshine Underground again as soon as possible - but I fear that it may be in a much, much bigger venue than this. The more people they play to, the more they will convert - they will be a very big band by the end of next summer's festivals.