The Maine 

Plus: This Century 

The Electric Ballroom, London

26.09.2012

Words: Jenny Chu

Coming back to the UK for the second time in the space of several months but mastering their own headlining tour, after supporting the mighty princes of pop punk All Time Low earlier on in the year. They hold an eloquent aura and sophistication in the sense of skill and tailoring a distinguished uniform about them.

Supporting tonight is This Century, animating the stage with one intension; to gratify every single face in the crowd. The pop thread hangs as they play out some seriously catchy songs but they rock things up with an edge to them that might see them actually get quite far. The quartet from Phoenix, Arizona also home to the headliners tease the stage with their clean cut image consuming all their fans new and old in pure delight.

The prominent southern rockers The Maine take the audience through a journey back a good few years from when the quintet were mostly known for their ultra-contagious pop punk style with songs ‘This Is The End’ and ‘I Must Be Dreaming’ off debut album Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. Frontman John O’Callaghan has matured since and his vocals have that perfect balance of being truly ripe as well as being excessively enchanting. It’s reassuring to see even the oldest of songs being greeted with a sing along.

From opening the set with ‘Identify’ as well as fellow Pioneer song ‘My Heroine’ marking their change over to a more dirty, washed down rock sound where guitarists Kennedy Brock and Jared Monaco compliment their mix of heavy and certainly effective talent. The band just seem to effortlessly mould together. This journey doesn’t miss out the platform for 2010’s album release Black and White playing fan favourites ‘Listen To Your Heart’ and ‘Don’t Stop Now’ which seems to be where the band shine the brightest, with undoubtedly great lyrics and lively rhythms making their set a hell of a good one.

Winding down with ‘While Listening To Rock and Roll’, ‘Into Your Arms’ and ‘Misery’ they successfully mix and match a sweet, mellow tune before blending into one of their absolute stand out tracks that see’s Joel Kanitz of This Century join for guest vocals and then falling head first into a rather grown up, serious track nonetheless the guitar riffs create superb dimension. There’s definite power and dominance where John is concerned in ‘When I’m At Home’ and ‘Like We Did (Windows Down)’ where the end result is that this band is quite frankly irresistible, commanding a beautiful scenery of hard working musicians supported by fans encouraging them with the sight of every lyric being sang back to the 5 piece. The Maine are not only in full swing but they look comfortably at home. ‘Right Girl’ is a fiercely flirty track and sounds just as invincible live. Closing with ‘Don’t Give Up On Us’ the special effects on the microphone only absorbs how iconic of a frontman John is and the band as a whole play through yet another full-bodied, dynamic and enthralling masterpiece of a song.