The Maccabees

There are plenty of reasons to hate the Maccabees. That, had he not been encouraged by the band's lead guitarist Felix to do so, Jack Penate might never have made a record, is just one of them. That rhythm guitarist Hugo White for some reason thinks it is cool to be on stage in a hoodie is another. And this is before we even mention that, in Orlando, Hugo, Felix and Rupert, they have the least rock and roll names of any band ever.

None of which tells you anything about their music, or this show. One has to be fair and say that they have turned into very polished performers who have a finely tuned sense of how to build a show and work a crowd. Musically, most of their songs are still nothing special, yet they are certainly way below The Pigeon Detectives in the Skiver Scale of Bands Who Should Be ASBO'd From Ever Making Another Record. In fact, some of their songs display glimpses of rare songwriting talent. "Precious Time" and "About Your Dress" are comparable to anything that, say, The Killers did at the same stage in their careers. And I defy any other band to write a song about a leisure centre - "Latchmere" - and make it sound like a love song.