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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