Max
Raptor
Hildamay
Bath, Komedia
6th March 2012
From
the first song, front man Tim Lawrence was off
the stage and amongst the crowd with his scratchy
yet rough voice carrying well. With some good
lights and a lot of energy from band members on
and off stage, there was a lot to keep the crowed
entertained throughout the show. They played through
a bit of "We Loved, We Lost" including
"By Your Side" and the title track,
before playing a new song. Tim jumped back on
stage for "The Light", before playing
another new track introduced as "Miles Away".
Hildamay's playing was pretty good, and well complemented
by the strong light show in this medium sized
venue. Whilst the energy on stage fit with the
fairly small inactive crowd, Tim tried to push
a little too much and spent most of the set jumping
around amongst
a static audience. The venue was much larger than
the crowd inhabiting it, which meant any atmosphere
was quickly dissipated. In a tightly packed venue
playing to a familiar crowd I think Hildamay could
put on a 5 star show. There performance brings
to my mind any one of the many music video's popping
up in the post-hardcore scene, with a band playing
in a living room to a crowd of people stealing
the mic, with the singer crowd surfing, and people
jumping of amps and furniture. I feel that the
band need to do a bit of work on their performance
as a support act, as their inability to adapt
to the small crowd, resulted in their clear ability
to play well as a band being overlooked and quickly
forgotten.
The
sound of Max Raptor was CD quality from the off,
and didn't let up through "Call To Arms"
or "Carolina" with the lights building
up through the set. Once again the stage failed
to contain the front man, as Wil Ray leapt from
the stage. Whilst Wil was running amongst the
crowd the stage fell absent of much movement,
though this is not to say that things were entirely
bland, as the rest bobbed along with guitarist
Chris Gilbert, as he resting one foot on the amp
whilst playing. There was a lot more professionalism
from Max Raptor than Hildamay, both in terms of
sound and performance, with a tight set and very
little to fault them on musically. Once again
the crowd was fairly quiet and unresponsive, and
the band haven't quite reached the performance
level required to spur on any crowd, in any venue,
but they didn't feel as restricted as the support
band did. Other than that, and the front man coming
off as somewhat arrogant, it's hard to find fault.
They played through a lot of the 2011 album "Portraits"
including "Beasts", "The Alarm"
and ended on the fast paced and catchy "The
King Is Dead" as the last track of the night.
In a way, this is the least satisfied I've been
leaving a venue all year. This wasn't because
tonights bands were in anyway disappointing, but
the humour, intimacy, and raw emotion we have
seen from the likes of "Brand New",
"The Xcerts", "Crazy Arm",
"Hyro Da Hero" and "Austin Lucas"
has been simply incredible, and some of the most
memorable gig's of my life. Max Raptor played
well, and would make an excellent support act
for larger bands, but as a headlining act i would
have loved to see them in a slightly smaller venue,
where they could bounce off the walls a bit more,
in front of a larger, more active crowd of fans
that i feel they deserve.
Hildamay 3/5
Max Raptor 4/5
Review By Marc Rich
Photos By Neil Oliver
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