NME Awards Tour

Academy 07/02/10

By Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura

Roll up roll up! Britain’s finest purveyors of commercial indie bring their circus of sweat to the O2 Academy on Sunday night, delighting discerning pot-bellied 40 year olds and prepubescent rockers alike.

First up are The Drums, pulling some alarmingly frenetic shapes as they thrashed out their charming mix of fifties-pop-meets-eighties-rock. Their energy is impressive, but the crowd seems to be either smiling indulgently or looking bored as hell. Lead singer Jonathan Pierce doesn’t help by prancing about like a peacock on coke - imagine a more arrogant Morrissey. Unfortunately, the lush immediacy of tracks like ‘Best Friend’ and ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ is obscured by Pierce belting out the vocals as though channelling Ian Curtis in a bad mood. We get it guys, you like the eighties. Blimey.

The Big Pink inexplicably walk on to Cypress Hill’s ‘I Wanna Get High’, as the stage fills with smoke, giving the impression that the crowd is in for an enjoyable event. It’s an illusion soon dismissed by the band’s unique brand of impressively bland shoegaze/noise rock. Even the actual fans only manage to move rhythmically to the misleadingly-accessible singles ‘Dominoes’ and ‘Velvet’, whilst the majority of the crowd suffer through the set.

Bombay Bicycle Club stroll on with a charming ease that lasts for the whole set, but don’t be put off by all the hype: this band know what they’re doing. Last year’s I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose proved that the band can deftly weave blues, punk and folk into pretty pop gems, but live, they’re a different story. Songs like instrumental thrasher ‘Emergency Contraception Blues’ and the epic ‘Magnet’ swallow you up in a shock of mad energy, and the anthemic ‘Always Like This’ is sung out in joyful fervour by the band and their fans from beginning to end, riffs and all.

The Maccabees return to Leeds for the second time this winter, snapping out old favourites and tracks from their recent album, which already feels like a classic, thanks to the band’s charismatic crowd-pleasing abilities. ‘Precious Time’ and ‘Young Lions’ seem to only improve with time, but whatever songs they’re playing - including I Am Kloot covers - The Maccabees consistently deliver the goods. Three decent gigs for the price of one, then. Splendid. - (8)