Monday, 19/03/12 Maccabees @ Cambridge, Corn Exchange

The Maccabees rounded of their most successful tour to date with a typically charming performance last night at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

The tour came off the back of their critically acclaimed number four album, 'Given to the Wild', and they are a band who deservedly gain a bigger fan base with each record.

The crowd were erratically warmed up by indie pop dwellers Le Shark, whose lead singer, Samuel Geronimo Deschamps, did his upmost to captivate an audience who seemed more excited about the fact The Maccabees could be seen at the side of the stage enjoying their support act.

It wasn’t long before the main attraction, whose audience now spans across all age groups rather than just a smattering of young indie kids, hit the stage to rapturous applause and began their set with their current album's title track 'Given to the Wild'. It was obvious that the crowd were in for a good night as there was a real party atmosphere both on stage and off - which can be a hard thing to find at this type of gig. However, it was clear that the Brighton/London quintet were in the mood to put on one of their best shows of the tour.

With each record, The Maccabees’ setlist grows ever stronger with barely time to breathe before the next track has you jumping up and down once again. Most of the tracks from the new record such as 'Child', 'Glimmer' and 'Forever I’ve Known' deservedly get a run-out with old favourites, 'First Love' and 'X-ray' falling in-between.

What frontman Orlando Weeks lacks in crowd interaction, he makes up for with faultless vocals that can range from the ever-so delicate to ultra-powerful in a heartbeat. He uttered no more than the occasional, ‘Thank you, for coming to see us,’ all night but it didn’t matter, as his endearing awkwardness takes nothing away from his performance.

The Maccabees are one of those bands that still seem stunned so many people have come to enjoy their music even though they fully deserve every bit of success for the hard work they put into each record. Many agree that they also fully deserve their headline spot at this year’s Reading and Leeds festival on the Radio 1 stage.

A lot of The Maccabees’ fans have been there from the beginning and grown up with their evolution into one of the UK’s most loved guitar bands. As these fans chanted for 'Lego' for most of the evening, they were dually rewarded during the encore which sent the first few rows into overdrive, before being given a breather for the last and most beautiful song of the night, 'We Grew up at Midnight'.