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Touring in support of their latest album 'The Cold Heart Of The Sun', expectations are high when Maroon take the stage at the Islington Academy in London, where the band and providing main support to Chimaira.
As the twin guitars of Sebastian Grund and Sebastian Rieche kick into action, things are sounding like we're in for a brutal assault of goodliness (or should that be evilness?)! It's loud, it's proud, and it's sounding really fucking good.
Then it hits... or rather doesn't. There's something seriously going wrong with the vocals tonight. Andre Moraweck is so far down in the mix that he's hardly audible over the rest of the band. So I wait, hoping that maybe it's just something that the techies in the sound booth are going to sort out, but no such luck. Then I think maybe it's just me... maybe the problem is I've gone deaf... but no, even between songs when Moraweck converses with the crowd it's hard to pick out what he's saying.
Gutted!
I was left wondering whether it was just one of those things, or whether it was done on purpose...
Either way, musically tonight Maroon sounded excellent. The quality of their new album shines through in the live setting - with obvious exceptions as we've already noted - and visually they pull no punches. Moraweck seems to be trying to make up for any issues going on by leaping around the stage like a demented wolverine complete with fist pumping, circle pit requests, and more besides.
When you listen to the album, Maroon sound like they're one the way to the top. See them live, and that's only reaffirmed, and that's despite the poor quality of tonights overall show.
While the ratting for tonight looks poor, it's hard to blame the band, and certainly not their music for that.
