Sunday 30/03/03 The Zutons, Mull Historical Society @ Academy, Liverpool

As one highly contagious health scare spreads worries from the East, we are tonight exposed to another much more western virus. It is the Zuton Fever, and although your lungs are safe, it has been known to set toes tapping, fingers clicking and most worryingly of all, shoulders moving in a side to side and up to down fashion. Since they released their debut single Devil's Deal last summer, the Zutons have been hard at work incorporating Abi Harding's sax into their sound. At first it seems like just a bit of a gimmick, but in actual fact it's the perfect foil to Dave McCabe's bluesy, McCulloch-like wail. The new single Creepin' an' a Crawlin' is a slow burning stand out, as is the flipside, the hard to pin down country reggae blues of Rambling Man. The set closes with an extended melodica and sax duet inspired wig out. The band members are introduced to the crowd, and then they're gone. The carrier has done its job, the people are infected.

Mull Historical Society return to Liverpool with great expectations. On their last visit they had not only had performed a fantastic gig, but they had just released a fine debut album. They've now followed that up with an even better second album Us. "They" being Colin MacIntyre that is. Singer, songwriter, producer - is there anything this man won't do? With lyrics covering small shops being forced out of business by supermarkets, and the life of a bored MP there is a lot of social commentary in his work. He also does the songs about love and loss well too, and wraps them up in that kind of joyous, independent pop that the Scots do so well.

There is something not quite right tonight though. It could be the muted reaction of the crowd. It's obvious that one of the other strings to Colin's bow is entertainment and although he encourages and cajoles the crowd between songs, they seem more eager to push their way to the bar and back again. It could be the technical difficulties that keeps the roadies on their toes, and causes Colin to throw more than one instrument to the floor in frustration. It could be the fact that for all his genius in the studio, some of these songs need more than his excellent four man backing band to be pulled off live. Recent single The Final Arrears falls flat, thrown away mid set, whilst the Tap like two bass guitar assault of Minister for Genetics and Insurance MP is a disaster that was always waiting to happen. Despite a rocky up-tempo run through of Watching Xanadu, the set has still been a bit of a disappointment. Until the encore that is.

After the ritual chants of more, and a few handclaps/foot stamps (why are calls for an encore so unenthusiastic these days?), Colin returns to the stage alone. He seems to have given up in his quest to get the room united as one and almost in defeat, asks the crowd what they would like to hear. Armed with his acoustic guitar at first, then moving to keyboards he treats us to a few of the songs that have been left out so far. Instantly the atmosphere in the room changes, and the reaction that he's been trying to goad from the crowd comes of its own accord. He's now the choirmaster and we are the choir and everybody's smiling. You can insert your own "greatest comeback since ..." clichés here, but we all went home happy following what this Gigwise reviewer feels was the best encore he's ever seen!