Maximum Effect
Max Raptor continue to gather momentum and are laying down a serious challenge to Marston's brewery as Burton on Trent's best export! Tonight they play support to The Subways in the smaller upstairs room at 53 Degrees in Preston.
The venue is deceptively large, being long and narrow and although the majority hang further back there is a healthy crowd up front by the time Max Raptor take the stage. There's only time for eight songs tonight but they certainly make the best of it and are on fine form from opener Back of a Barrel Wave onwards. It has to be said that the crowd at the front are superb tonight! Small in number they may be but they really go for it, shouting back each rousing chorus with ever increasing gusto.
Thankfully Max Raptor just don't do mediocre songs and that makes for an extremely impressive set that piles riff on riff and chorus upon chorus. The band are universally energised and go about their performance with a simmering intensity that at just the right moment, spills over into a frenzy of motion. The problem Max Raptor often face is that small venues often suffer from poor sound and that really detracts from their performance as the key to their sound is the endless stream of melodies and you just need to be able to hear them. Tonight thankfully the sound is good. The vocals are a little too quiet but that allows the guitars to cut through and illustrates what a tight unit they are. They whip the crowd up into a marauding mass of flailing limbs although the attempted circle pit is quickly abandoned after the soaking wet floor makes staying upright an impossibility.
We keep saying it but tonight illustrates yet again that Max Raptor have all the required elements to really go somewhere with their infectious punk fuelled anthems. They can hold their own against anyone else out there at the moment and they should be a lot bigger than they are. They will be bigger than they are. Anything else would be a travesty.