Another gig in the refurbished Dalston drinking hole; another hipster crowd. This time people are gathered to *ahem* lose themselves to the sound of Mazes. The blog/BBC 6 Music friendly London and Manchester band are playing the back-room venue to launch their new single ‘Summer Hits’. Having heard a handful of songs from their debut album ‘A Thousand Heys’; I was looking forward to hearing their brand of lo-fi guitar pop live. The place is packed with what appears to be lots of friends of the band with in jokes and references flying around between songs. Despite the obvious support, something doesn’t quite gel with this set. I can’t tell whether it’s down to technical issues or tour fatigue (in recent months they have played with Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast and Times New Viking and are about to support White Denim in the US), but the carefree abandon of their singles to date isn’t so evident tonight.
Guitarist and singer Jacks squints over his guitar and says “I don’t mean to be a dick” for once this is a sentence that merits a little empathy “but I can’t see what I’m doing” he implores the venue tech who has been blasting strobing lights over them from the word go. He continues to flicker lights in their faces and then dispassionately retorts “Is that better?”It isn’t really and I do feel for them.
That said there are a few gems breaking through the muddied sound. At the start the vocals are almost inaudible and the bass is dominating. When they can be heard, the jangling riffs get my toes tapping and west-coast harmonies give me a summertime rush à la early Weezer. There were flashbacks to 90s zine bands like Urusei Yatsura and their influences are fairly clear. As with peers Yuck, a love of distortion and American indie is etched all over their sound. One song is even called ‘Sebadoh High’. To quote Mr Lou Barlow, ‘Just Gimme Indie Rock’. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to hear it a little more clearly.