Tonight
is quite a nice night in Birmingham, the summer
is fading but we still have one more night off
warm weather which The Maine may have brought
with them all the way from sunny Arizona. As well
as the weather The Maine have brought country
rock sounds and a support band also from Arizona,
the first and only support band
This Century, are a four piece and a band, that
to be honest with you, I have never heard off,
and yet they are the only support band and so
get a set off about an hour which is crazy when
there are so many great bands out there who only
get 15 minutes to promote themselves. The crowd
don’t seem to have heard too much of them
either, but as tonight The Maine are playing the
crowd is full off young girls who will scream
for anything, so they feel right at home as they
bounce into their set of alt rock songs, which
are fun and catchy but nothing new. The crowd
take to them and by the end of the set they are
singing along and having fun, but it’s not
too hard to impress this crowd on the whole. Singer
Joel Krantz decides to jump into the near to the
end of the set after announcing “this is
the best night of the tour so far”, he comes
out a little worse for ware and the band leave
the stage with a smile on their face. To be fair
they did well, but there is just something lacking
that would make them a great band instead of an
average one.
The
Maine are up next up, last time this 5 piece was
here in Birmingham singer John O forgot the lines
to songs and put on a bit of a lacklustre performance.
Tonight though they are over this and the year
off none stop touring has prepared them for their
headline tour of the UK. They come out and play
Identify, My Heroine and Listen To Your Heart
to a wall of noise from the crowd, they constantly
scream for the first 3 songs making heard to hear
a word that John O sings. They sound pretty well
once the screaming dyes down and you can hear
the words coming from the stage instead of the
audience singing them. They put on a good show
but this alt rock/indie/country band just seem
to relaxed, it’s pretty simple for them,
just turn up get on stage and jobs done. The crowd
will love them no matter what they do or say and
it’s a shame, because they do sound good
and have allot of passion behind the songs but
when you’re constantly belted with screams
from girls every night it’s easy to lose
your edge, which is what I think has happened
with their last album, but I hope they continue
to play great songs and keep working hard at what
they do and hopefully make some more songs that
are as good as their older records.
There
set is pretty good but mainly consists of songs
from their latest album Pioneer, but they put
on a good show and during Into Your Arms Joel
Krantz comes on stage and joins The Maine in a
belting performance, which calms the room down,
amazingly the screams stop and people listen to
what is being sung. Unfortunately this doesn’t
last and after Joel leaves the stage the screams
start again as the band play Misery, When I’m
At Home and Inside Of You. They close their set
with songs like Jenny and Hello World before playing
the last song, the catchy Don’t Give Up
On Us.
The crowd all seem like they’ve had fun
but even though they performed better than last
time, they just didn’t hit that explosive
show that I’m sure they’re capable
off. Let’s just hope they continue to get
better and their next record is a corker, as they
are capable of great things, it just seems there
taking there time to get their.
This Century 2.5/5
The Maine 3.5/5
Review By James Daly
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