Maybeshewill w/ Long Distance Calling, The Joiners, Southampton, 24/02/11

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Maybeshewill | All photos by Dominik Dycewicz

Southampton-based gigs have always been a personal bone of contention. Whether it’s the sound-swallowing carpets of the city’s biggest venue The Guildhall, or the typical scattering of static individuals congregating as far away from the stage as possible, I’ve rarely been to a show in Southampton that’s been particularly memorable for its audience interactivity or observable appreciation of the band’s talent.

Long Distance Calling

Yet somehow I find myself at the start of Long Distance Calling’s set surrounded by an absolutely packed crowd throwing themselves around, cheering, clapping and overtly enjoying themselves. This is the rapturous gang reaction that the German post-metal quintet both incite and deserve, yet I’m still surprised to find it here.

After a two-week tour of Germany as headliners, this is the first night back in Maybeshewill’s home country and as a result Long Distance Calling switch to support slot – yet it’s apparent that as many people have turned out to watch the band in action as they have to witness Maybeshewill, and deservedly so.

Making use of a laptop-based drum machine as well as a live drum set-up, the percussion in Long Distance Callings’ music is highly skilled, yet reigned in, fully complementing the band’s remaining instrumentation of two guitars and a bass. As well as performing their older, popular songs from debut record Satellite Bay, the band also manifests material from their forthcoming eponymous third album. Whereas their older material demonstrates more of a tendency to build a song with layers of riffs and overlaying guitar melodies, the band’s progression is apparent from their more recent detailed song writing. Not that this is a criticism of their older songs – each individual instrumental apex results in a new wave of interest and renewed intensity as the mass of thrashing bodies, waving arms and actual whooping signifies. Looking around it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the collective enthusiasm.

As the euphoric applause and huge visible support for the band intensifies as they exit the stage, there’s a sense that many are here for Long Distance Calling alone. There’s certainly a slightly smaller audience size for tonight’s headliners, but when the band take to the stage it’s barely noticeable as the crowd’s fervor advances the room’s atmosphere more than sheer numbers alone could generate.

Maybeshewill

There’s something about the immediacy and driving urgency of instrumental music that makes it so powerful and an altogether altered beast in a live environment. Maybeshewill have frequently rejected their oft-cited post-rock tag, and tonight it’s clear to see and hear why. Swapping many of the intricacies and delicacy of their recorded material for heavier bass lines and more of a thudding sense of the imperative, in a live setting Maybeshewill sound brutal and turbulent. Songs such as ‘Seraphim & Cherubim’ and ‘C.N.T.R.C.K.T’ showcase this heaviness to perfection, with all three thundering guitars unfolding over one another while the drums crash wildly in the background, weaving through and binding the key changes and riffs together.

With more than a few line up changes over the years, their most recent recruit – bassist Jamie Ward – is a welcome addition to the band and looking comfortable with his centre stage position, under the sole spotlight. Ward gives the impression he’s been part of the band since the very beginning, with a sense of confidence that draws parallels to the remaining members’ comparative sense of shyness on the stage. Barely a few sentences are uttered during the whole set, highlighting the band’s clear preference to allow their music speak for itself.

Maybeshewill

Throughout the performance a pre-recorded background of keyboards, glockenspiels and synthesisers threads its way into the set, seamlessly binding the guitars and drums together in such a discreet and faultless manner that it’s barely noticeable that it’s not being played live.

Samples are another of Maybeshewill’s tricks, and in place of the vocals that their instrumental music shuns, there are often excerpts of speeches or film scripts included in their songs. One such moment comes during ‘…In Another Life, When We Were Both Cats’, as the haunting words “Hey, I really did try to kill myself” are shouted between stop/start synthesisers and glockenspiel arpeggios as the four stand eerily still and silent on the stage. It’s certainly atmospheric and an intrinsic part of what makes Maybeshewill’s music so thrilling and almost filmic, while simultaneously adding another dynamic to their otherwise instrumental songs.

Dispersed amongst old favourites such as ‘How To Have Sex With A Ghost’, ‘The Paris Hilton Sex Tape’ and ‘Co-Conspirators’, Maybeshewill also showcase a slightly more electronic edge with some of their newer material taken from their forthcoming album I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone. Lead single ‘Critical Distance’ is underpinned with a backing soaring piano melody that allows the thundering guitars to leap over it with full-force while losing none of the central melody that drives the song forward. The song revels in its riffs and modulation and illuminates the fact that if this new material – and the audience’s reaction to it – is anything to go by then the rest of the album looks set to be extremely impressive.

Ending their 45-minute set with ‘Not For Want Of Trying’, complete with an excerpt of Howard Beale’s crazed rant in Network that interweaves itself into the song’s centre, Maybeshewill bring their show’s demise to a powerful end, so much so that no one quite wants it to end just yet. After clamorous demands for an encore, the quartet look slightly surprised and bewildered as they take to the stage for a clearly unexpected run through of the evening’s final song ‘He Films The Clouds Pt 2’.

Much of Maybeshewill’s strength lies in their ability to hold the audience in the centre of the storms that they create on stage, and as the soft, repetitive piano notes signal the song’s start, it is clear to see the immediate effect that the sense of anticipation brings. By the time the sampled crystal-clear vocals of Rosie Bracken burst through the soundsystem for a second chorus, the whole venue – and for the first time tonight, the four on stage – erupt into a collective chorus of “Now we’re apart, but not through choice/ Do we stay mute or raise our voice?”

As the audience’s vocals drown out the sample, for the first time tonight the crowd are able to show their aural appreciation for the band. Maybeshewill are definitely a band to experience live, and their songs’ heavier guitar parts and resounding drumming make for an even more urgent, thrilling encounter than their recorded counterparts.With the recent announcement of numerous festival appearances you are sure to stumble across the band’s experimental, instrumental offerings at some stage this summer. Make sure you watch them, and don’t forget your earplugs.