Lightning Seeds, Maxïmo Park, Riding the Low, and Propaganda DJ's

The Lightning Seeds, an alternative band out of Liverpool, put on some of the most amazing live shows you will see in any genre. Their song Pure, performed live, is a lively, jazzy, poppy, fun, funky song. It is a mellow good time, a song to sit back and relax with a few beers with your friends to while they play just for you.

But just when you think they are just a fun little light band you will change your mind if you hear them somewhere like the Riverside Festival. They raise the roof and bring down the house, simultaneously, with surprising electric guitar riffs and incredibly fun drum beats. They march in time with the music as they belt out the lyrics. The audience takes it all in and loves it. You can feel them bouncing, hopping, getting excited at the music that is washing over them. They keep building the intensity until the audience cannot take any more, then they bring it back down to that smooth, poppy band that you enjoyed talking about over beers with friends. They can go to so many extremes that seeing them live is an experiment in variation. It's an experiment not to be missed.

Alt-rockers Maxïmo Park wrapped up their latest UK tour in their home base of Newcastle with the second of two shows at the O2 Academy. The band have been touring in support of their fifth studio album "Too Much Information" - a genuine candidate for ugliest album cover of the year, which is a shame because the album represents something of a return to form after 2012's disappointing "National Health" which was released in the darkest depths of the recession. The new album sees an increased reliance on beats and electronics but singer and writer Paul Smith remains a poetic, romantic lyricist and Duncan Lloyd a seriously underrated and melodic guitarist. The tour got off to something of a bad start with a couple of shows having to be rescheduled due to Smith requiring an emergency eye operation, but to his credit he soldiered on even though this meant that his stage presence wasn't quite as animated and acrobatic as normal. It also provided a rare case of a rock star wearing sunglasses on stage through necessity rather than affectation. Opening with a fine trio of songs - the catchy "Give, Get, Take" from the new album, "Our Velocity" and "Signal & Sign" - the band soon got into their rhythm, with Lukas Wooller pogoing around his keyboard while Smith in trademark trilby, shades and check-suit struck a series of camera pleasing poses and even demonstrated some sub-Peter Crouch style robotics for the crowd crushed against the barrier. Although the new material such as "Brain Cells", the terrific "Midnight On The Hill" and "Leave This Island" was greeted enthusiastically, it was the songs from the first two albums “Our Earthly Pleasures” and “A Certain Trigger” that got the adrenalin pumping quickest and the biggest crowd responses. Old favourites like "Graffiti", "Limassol", "Books From Boxes", "By The Monument" (always popular in Newcastle, where the Academy is only a few hundreds yard from said monument), "Girls Who Play Guitars" and a tremendous version of "Apply Some Pressure" received wild responses. Some of the better songs on “National Health” were also performed such as the title track and “The Undercurrents”. A few years ago I saw Maxïmo Park play to a packed crowd at Newcastle Arena - where they even flirted with lasers - and it seemed for a time that they might be lost to the bigger sheds which would have been a shame. Venues like the Academy are the perfect place for the band - Smith is a genuinely likeable frontman easily capable of whipping up a crowd of this size. The band relate to their audience well, and it would be a shame to see this relationship diluted in bigger arenas. “The Park” always a deliver a passionate performance and Saturday night’s tour finale was no exception.

I headed all the way to Leicester from Newcastle upon Tyne to catch Riding the Low at The Scholar on Friday 24th April. Having seen them many times before in a variety of venues, I knew it would be worth the journey.
They supported The Charlatans in the main venue last month and were exceptional. Tim Burgess is a big fan. To be honest, it doesn't seem to matter if they're playing to thousands or a roomful, they always put 100% into their performance. Tonight was no exception.
With Paddy Considine as the frontman, you'd expect passsion and intensity. In Riding the Low it comes from all sides. Proper strapped-on, gutsy rock'n'roll with killer tunes and high kicks agogo. They stormed through a satisfyingly long set, including, in a demanded encore, the brilliant 'Dizzly Doo Dah Man'.'Rocky 99' and 'Easy On Our Own' were the crowd-pleasers but the whole set was impressive with plenty of great new songs thrown in.
If you're heading to Kendal Calling, Forgotten Fields or the Isle of Wight Festival, be sure to check them out, and keep your eye out for their next album and hopefully a tour, due later this year. It's going to be immense.