Music
The Maccabees, O2 Academy, Glasgow
Four stars
Although a farewell tour, there was never likely to be anything flashy about the Maccabees final bow. They are a band who built a career in understated terms, through four impressive albums and gradual evolution rather than any ridiculous hype, and so it proved here.
Although the set wasn’t chronological it was still possible to trace their career, from the youthful eagerness and love of post-punk and poetry that characterised the jerky, anxious X-Ray and heart-swoon pop of Precious Time through No Kind Words’ brooding disquiet and eventually the uncertain contemplation that characterised a spikey Spit It Out.
There was all of that, plus Latchmere, surely the most euphoric song about a local leisure centre ever written, and Marks To Prove It, a terrifically discordant piece of noisy pop in the encore. The voice of Orlando Weeks underpinned it all. After all these years and despite attempts at dancing and arm-waving, his onstage persona still sometimes resembled a shy boy trying to back out of a school presentation, but the vocal was gorgeous, capable of heartbreak and defiance.
He apologised at one stage for leaving the talking to guitarist Felix White, a more gregarious presence who leapt to the front of the stage regularly (and was last to depart after taking an extra moment to soak the reaction in). His guitar work, together with his brother Hugo, provided that extra thrust.
However the gig showcased the group (aided by extra brass and percussion) as a whole, through to a conclusion of Pelican, an urgent, dynamic tune about life’s progression. Fitting, because the Maccabees managed to regularly evolve without ever losing their original spark. That is why they’ll be missed.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article