Regional assembly

THE FUTUREHEADS / MAXIMO PARK, BIRMINGHAM ACADEMY, 6TH DECEMBER 2004

The concept of a regional assembly for the North-East may have been overwhelmingly rejected in last month's referendum, but no-one seems to have told Mackems The Futureheads, who've invited Geordies Maximo Park along on a nationwide jaunt and thereby formed "some sort of North-East Alliance against boredom and complacency".

It's a marriage made in heaven. Warp signings Maximo Park perhaps don't quite have the songs to upstage their slightly more established art-punk siblings from down the road, but it's hearts-on-sleeves stuff from the word go, and though they might sing about confusion and entrapment, they're not in denial of their Geordie roots. Double A-side single 'The Coast Is Always Changing', forthcoming release 'Apply Some Pressure' and set-closer 'Going Missing' all sound like the boys from Sunderland taken round the back and given a good rodgering by Alex Kapranos or one of The Walkmen.

In frontman Paul Smith they have a real focal point too - dressed in an unfashionable suit, shirt and tie, with his hair slicked across his forehead in a ferocious side-parting, he leaps and bounds angrily around the stage looking like a nerdish Sixth Former who's just had his dinner money nicked. Or Alan Partridge with a bee up his sphincter. Now there's an image for you.

Like Maximo Park, The Futureheads bristle with regional pride, and make no attempt to disguise their accents. Extensive touring over the past year has whetted their live set to a keen blade, their spiky songs like daggers which jab you in the ribs in a perversely pleasurable way. There's no stylish slickness here, just an invigorating clattering punk racket overlaid with the glorious three and sometimes four part vocal harmonies. You get the feeling that you're witnessing the release of years of pent-up frustration, the cork popping from the bottle marked 'Adolescent Energy'. Fast, furious and utterly thrilling to watch.

'Le Garage' and 'Robot' kick things off, and the rest of the set rattles past in a flurry of angular guitar lines and tuneful bellowing. Over the course of the evening we get their entire debut album, guitarless a capella curiosity 'Danger Of The Water' aside, as well as a new song called 'Area' and their terrific cover of The Television Personalities' 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray'. In fact, judicious covers feature prominently, Kate Bush's 'Hounds Of Love' penultimate in the main set and the abrasive thrash through Neil Young's 'Piece Of Crap' following perhaps their finest moment yet, 'Carnival Kids', in the encore. As great as their album is, the live environment is where the songs are most at home.

The Futureheads, then: proof that even the most horrid, smog-filled, scabby cloud (ie Sunderland) has a priceless silver lining.

Suffice to say that tonight, at least, the "North-East Alliance" roundly trounced "boredom and complacency", and sent them on their way tails firmly lodged between their legs.