Live Review: The Maccabees - Metro Theatre

A rather sparse crowd welcomed Argentina to the stage, which was possibly the reason for their slightly shaky and nervous start. Usually a solo effort, producer and musician Alex Ritchie was joined by a bass player and drummer for the live set, which worked really well to round out their cheerful indie pop sound. As they played through tracks including The Naked & Famous-sounding Bad Kids and Plastic Excuse, the crowd slowly filtered through from the bar and started bopping along to the tunes with knowing looks of, 'I've never heard of these guys, but they're really good.'

The room was packed out by the time The Maccabees appeared on stage in a cloud of coloured smoke to cheers from a heavily British-skewed crowd. Singer Orlando Weeks, looking so '90s cool in a buttoned-up chequered shirt and hooped earrings, eased into Given To The Wild from the new album of the same name with daintily soft vocals building up to feverishly strumming guitar perched high on his chest.

The cool looking quintet then crashed straight into Feel To Follow, prompting a mass jump around by the crowd and guitarist brothers Hugo and Felix White facing off for the big riffs. A selection of arguably their best tracks from all three of their albums followed including Love You Better, Can You Give It and First Love, with the older tracks garnering the most attention.

Weeks' quiet and mousy nature didn't lend itself well to the live show, with much of the set going by without much crowd interaction at all. However no one seemed to care as long as they heard all the hits they came for.

A brief encore of three tracks, featuring Lego, Precious Time and the beautiful Grew Up At Midnight followed a round of boisterous chanting, building up perfectly to a punchy finish. A happy band and a happy crowd.