Monday 27/03/06 Secret Machines @ Carling Academy, Liverpool

Tonight begins with ominous all flashing lights and silhouettes and the band are greeted with a small but enthusiastic crowd, the majority of which seem to be incredibly familiar with Secret Machines’ work. Their epic sound works well in the small venue, and the music seems to fill up every crack of the room with its intensity and demanding nature. The band themselves don’t give much of a visual or personal performance, but the quality of the music more than makes up from it; this isn’t a band you need a drunken running commentary from or Tom Vek style quirky dances to keep you entertained. This is fairly impressive from a band whose average song lasts about seven minutes, especially being that there’s only one point in the gig when a three note song seems to drag on for just thirty seconds too long. But hey, they can make an amazing track from three notes, so who really cares.

This is a band who in the post libertines age seem to be carving their own niche and defying what everyone else is doing. Their new single ‘Lightning Blue Eyes’ is slightly more accessible than some of their earlier tracks played tonight from their album ‘Now Here Is Nowhere’ and the crowd clearly love it. The other new material they play lives up to their previous standard, but it’s songs like ‘Nowhere Again’ where they really excel, leaving even the cynics mightily impressed. The only criticism we could fire at them is that lead singer Brandon Curtis’s voice is at points not the most engaging of things to listen to, but they’re not an ‘easy’ band and it’s their complexity which is so refreshing about them.

Secret Machines have the rare gift that every time you see them they perform an exhilarating set, yet it sounds nothing like the time you saw them before. The band leave the evening with their only pretentious moment, jumping in the crowd letting the audience help with the ear piercing yet strangely gorgeous sound of feedback that signals the end of an outstanding gig.