It's a cold, extremely chilly night (as you more than likely gather) in Oxford, and despite this fact, inappropriately dressed indie kids flock to The Regal 3 hours before the doors open. Orlando Weeks teases, casually walking up and down the queue every 10 minutes, just to get a few "LOOK, IT'S ORLANDO"'s from screaming girls.
Upon meeting Orlando beforehand, he told me that he was extremely excited about support band Wilder, whom have just been Julian Casablancas' opening act on his most recent tour. As soon as they walk on stage, you get the feeling that they're nothing new - guy with nerd glasses, testicle-crunching skinny jeans and vintage boots up front, a messy looking rocker chick on drums, and a pigtailed(?) boy looking equally as cool on synth. Then ruining it all, just your average looking bassist. 80's synth-pop wannabe's, perhaps? For once, first impressions couldn't be more wrong. Set-opener 'TBT' launches with a tense, drum-infused intro in which you just want to hear more - much more. These timid Bristolians then introduce themselves, not very loudly, infact, as it causes the crowd to shout in time "SORRY WHAT WAS THAT? WE FUCKING LIKE YOU, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" followed by Joe, lead singer, repeating himself with a pleased smile. 'Run Jack Run' ends the set, to a much appeased crowd.
The crowd being full of cool, hipster types, you don't really expect there to be much movement when The Maccabees open up their set with 'William Powers', just the odd head bopper and nod in satisfaction every now and then to eachother. Wrong - again. The crowd go fucking mental, and it's clear to see that Maccabees have some die hard fans upon them. It especially goes crazy when sing-a-long 'Precious Time' comes about, 6 songs into set. 500 people shouting 'LET'S. TAKE. OUR. PRECIOUS. TIME. ABOUT IT' is bound to give you tingles, and you can certainly tell it's affecting guitarist Felix White. He has a Cheshire cat grin on him pretty much throughout the whole set, the grin not just set on his face, but on everyone else's too. 'Young Lions', through to the almost operatic 'Can You Give It?' leaves everyone breathless, so it's perfectly timed for a bit of 'Toothpaste Kisses.' The singletons of the world generally hate this song live, especially as when you turn around and see a couple snogging each other's faces off, right in your face, it's bound to make you a bit depressed. Nevertheless, the soothing, acoustic, lovey dovey sing-a-long is well needed breather, but then it takes your breath away once more, through it being pure, raw and beautiful. Another fan's favourite 'First Love' straight after, then 'No Kind Words' up last, and the extremely unself-conscious Orlando starts tap dancing his way around the stage, and as it ends, pretty much tap dances straight off. Time for the annoying part of a gig - the encore. Turns out it was worth it this time though, as The Maccabees treat Oxford to something they've never done before to anybody else - a cover of Orange Juice's hit 'Rip It Up.' You know it's good when a cover version is a hundred times fucking better than the original. Last song of the night is 'Love You Better', and Orlando mysteriously eyes up a few of the crowd, a mischievous glint in his eye... shove, shove, shove in the crowd, and suddenly 2 lads are up on stage with the band, one nearly knocking poor Felix on to his arse. Bedlam occurs with security, one eyeing up the other, wondering who to blame for this mishap, and then the boys are positively rugby tackled onto the ground and off-stage, followed by supportive cheers from the crowd.
And so, this was the NME Awards Tour warm up gig for the boys, and in this cold snap where we're all wrapped up in scarves, gloves and clutching a hot water bottle 24/7, a cup of tea doesn't compare to being warmed up by The Maccabees. Nowhere near so.
