Shockwaves NME Awards Tour

Birmingham O2 Academy

words and pictures by James Watkins

The Shockwaves NME Award tour rolled into the West Midlands, offering a chance for revellers to catch four bands that are hotly tipped for success in 2010. Sharing the stage with headliners The Maccabees, were Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums.

Fans lined up for the Shockwaves tour

Collecting much acclaim over the past few months, Brooklyn four-piece, The Drums kicked things with a smart and quick-paced indie-pop set that got the predominantly young crowd bouncing about from the start, with Let’s Go Surfing collecting the biggest cheers.

With the bar set high, it was The Big Pink’s turn to impress with a short set of electro-rock that raised expectations. Powering their way through Velvet, they unleashed  an aural assault with their biggest single to date, Dominoes, which went down a storm.

Next up were the highly-regarded Bombay Bicycle Club. Their fast-paced and perfectly crafted indie-rock won the fans over in an instant. Playing through Dust On The Ground, Magnet and a manic version of How Are You, they made a statement of intent that this could be their year.

The Maccabees, however, swept all before them. Bounding on stage to William Powers, the energy of frontman Orlando Weeks was the perfect foil for brothers Felix and Hugo White on guitars. The crowd literally went bezerk and it wasn’t long before there was a sea of crowd surfers constantly rattling the front barriers and being picked up by the overworked security.

All In Your Rows and Dinosaurs received much applause with X-Ray and Toothpaste Kisses keeping the momentum going throughout the hour-long set. The anthemic First Love seemed to calm the raucous furore into a more mellow affair before the night ended with Bag Of Bones and Love You Better. As tips for the top go, the NME had selected four real belters.