After a strange set from The Maccabees on Saturday, in front of a largely empty venue, this was a proper headline gig, the climax of a very successful tour for the band. This show was at the Roundhouse in Camden, a venue which, at around 3,000 capacity, has to be one of the biggest that The Maccabees have headlined. It is a strange (and not ideal) venue for a rock gig though, more on that later.Kid Harpoon was the main support band, and there was a pretty decent audience in there watching. I didn't see all of the set (in fact, I didn't see very much at all), but what I heard was quite interesting. It sounded quite quirky and poppy, a sound that I'd think wouldn't appeal to everybody, but wasn't bad at all. After a break while the Maccabees' equipment was all set up, all were ready for them to come on stage - they were due on quite late, at 9:45, which I guess was understandable given the fact that they have only one album of fairly short songs.
At 9:45, some guy appeared on stage and started playing songs acoustically. He was called Derek Meins, and there were a couple of people with him too. His songs and performance weren't bad - but absolutely nobody wanted him to be there. Everybody was waiting for The Maccabees to come on stage, so when this guy that nobody had heard of came on, it deflated the anticipation that had been building up. Decent songs and a decent performer, but the timing was not great at all, and he got a bit of abuse because people wanted to see the headliners.
After Derek's set, the Maccabees came on to the sound of The Clash's Clampdown, and a great crowd reception; and started ploughing into playing their album. Orlando was quite chatty with the audience, explaining that all they had wanted to do was get to make a second album, and thanks to people's support, they would be able to do it. They played a few new songs, which sounded like fairly typical Maccabees songs (i.e. poppy and very good!). And, the audience went mad when songs like Latchmere, About Your Dress, Lego, and set closer Precious Time were played.
In fact, the scene in the middle of the audience was very mental indeed, with bodies and limbs flying around all over the place. The encore included another excellent new song, then manically good versions of Happy Faces and First Love. The band wandered off, and Turn The Page by The Streets started playing - a cool ending to an almost perfect gig.
On the way out of the venue, there was a huge crush on the way down the stairs, which really brought home how the place is not ideal for 3,000 drunk attendees of a gig. The main venue is up a flight of (very slippery when wet) stairs, and the cloakroom is right at the bottom of the stairs, which means that nobody can move on the way down. About half of the 3,000 people had decided to meet on a bridge over the stairs, which meant that nobody could move around there either. And, throughout the gig, it seemed like I spent half the time in a queue for the gents - there seemed to be about half a dozen urinals in the whole place. For 1,800 seated, polite "customers", or for an art exhibition, I'm sure this is all fine - not so sure about it for a busier, more mental rock gig. Maybe it is a positive reflection on The Maccabees, that they put on busy, mental rock gigs, but I'm not a fan of watching them in the Roundhouse.
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