AS an alternative way to spend a Friday night The Maccabees are not a bad option.

They possess that great quality in a band – being able to completely capture their audience within a couple of notes of a song.

Granted, it helped that their audience at the Guildhall was overwhelmingly ‘indie’ students and teenagers, littering the place with chequered shirts and double denim, but the control the band displayed was no mean feat.

Thanks to the release of their third studio album Given to the Wild last year, the band had an extensive back catalogue to choose a set list from and the result was particularly pleasing.

Although some of the songs from that album sound to me like a bit of a departure towards the ‘easy listening’ genre, they sounded far more energetic on stage, particularly the second song of the night, Child.

They kept the fans happy throughout with a mixture of catchy riffs and haunting harmonies from old favourites like Precious Time and Love You Better to new songs like Feel to Follow and Grew Up at Midnight.

Meanwhile the show was particularly impressive visually, even to the band themselves as shown when frontman Orlando Weeks tried to copyright a stained glassesque effect being projected on to the Guildhall walls.

The only downside was one of the older members of the audience crashing around into others with dad-at-a-wedding dance moves that Bez from the Happy Mondays would be proud of !

But he was enjoying himself and it was easy to see why after such a thoroughly entertaining gig.