Hailing from the Wirral The Loud has been causing a fuss for a while. Whilst their sound is certainly not defined by the Mersey, you can’t help but pick up its inflections, and not just in terms of accent in the lyrics. The Loud’s music gives you a healthy slice of life as lived, which adds an authenticity even to their poppier numbers; there is nothing token or trivial in their music so the prospect of seeing them live is beyond exciting.

Due to difficulties travelling to Nottingham the band had no chance to sound check, in fact they arrived half way through the second support slot; this meant that The Loud took to the stage, did a two minute line-check then launched into their set. From listening to their songs and reading their write ups you expect a bit more swagger and strutting from the band. This isn’t to say that you don’t get your pound of flesh in terms of effort, it’s a different kind of performance, not necessarily introverted, more like something primal is escaping and it’s all in the music. For my money I’d rather have the musicians focused as a conduit for the music instead of fey, prancing wannabe Jaggers or look-at-me-I’m-nearly-a-Gallagher types. You get more than a performance out of these boys; more a musical exorcism than any expectation of your dance routine pop nonsense. When their anthemic ‘I am a War’ was unleashed it was like a bomb had gone off; the crowd left it all on the floor and The Loud looked like they were ready to start a riot.

We know the hackneyed ‘turn it up to 11’ lines, but something happened on that amp-stack because they managed to find some extra decibels inside them that were unavailable for the other bands on the night. That being said, due to the late start some of the punters had already left before the start of The Loud’s set, which was a massive shame not only for the band, but for themselves because they missed out on what must be one of the most stand-out performances on the stage at The Maze. Nottingham can be a tough city to play, and the attendees of gigs are notoriously difficult to please, but on the night the collective at The Maze all found their dancing feet, and oiled the hinges in their necks and that’s thanks to The Loud. Catch these as soon as you can if you want to get within fifty foot of the stage. To quote the band, “if red is the colour, then Loud is the sound.”