The future of indie lies in the small fonts: The Maccabees at All Points East
Golden ages, heydays, peaks.
We talk a lot about the best of times as if music hits a pinnacle and then rots. Sometimes it does, but in the case of indie music, the fear that the genre is dying is unfounded, and The Maccabees‘ stacked lineup at All Points East proved it.
Everyone seems to think that the era of indie they grew up in is the best. People around (and of drinking age) in the early 2000s mourn the indie sleaze days where The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys were kings. Teenagers in the 2010s are forever stuck there, just as the kids of the 2020s will likely be going on about their own class for the rest of their lives. The whole lineage was on the lineup at All Points East this weekend, providing something for each age group, but as the day went on, all I could feel was hope.
By the time Maccabees had wrapped up their set and we were in the sea of bodies leaving, a rank had settled in my mind. Their headline set was everything anyone could have wanted from an event that felt like indie Christmas. People were on shoulders, arms were in the air, Jamie T appeared, and the hits went down easy. Even through some technical issues as the sound seemed to cut out for everyone except the band, they did what they’re built to do: crowdpleasing. It was the sort of set that was obviously good because how could it ever not be? With songs that are euphoric and so attached to so many people’s youthful memories, the energy was always going to be great, the show was always going to be a victory.
But in the ranking, they came last. Drawing it out, the best of the day can be plotted in reverse time order, counting back through the years as a clear statement that there was no golden age – things are only getting better.
Bombay Bicycle Club were a step up with a genre-spanning set that showed what they’ve always done best. Covering all bases from their early indie anthems like ‘Shuffle’, through to the newer stuff which has got more nuanced and more referential as the years have gone on, they’re a band whose quality has never dipped, but they’ve also still managed to change.
As ‘Always Like This’ got the whole field dancing, both the friends I was with shared a story of how that song, and this band, were a gateway. They were the first indie act all of us truly got into. Maybe part of our love for them comes down to that. We could have surrendered to nostalgia and crowned them the best of the day purely because of that, but the quality of the new kids won out.
CMAT gets the crown. Under an insane cloud of dust being kicked up from a whole field doing the Dunboyne two-step to ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby’, everyone is smiling. It’s impossible not to when CMAT is playing as the show is so perfected, the songs are so catchy, and her energy is infectious. She nails the ultimate indie balance between putting on a foolproof good show that could hook anyone in and having the songs to ensure that. There is no resisting a track like ‘Have Fun’, but as she delivered the best vocals of the day by displaying the staggering power of her voice, even when running all over the stage, the love everyone inevitably ends up feeling for her as a person and an entertainer is more than backed up by the talent. She has the star power and the substance to solidify it.
There’s something in the fact that CMAT is a huge Bombay Bicycle Club fan too. She grew up in the same indie class as the rest of us, and she learnt impeccably. But here, she beat them. The student became the master. Indie is in good hands for the future. The kids are alright.
Divorce, Westside Cowboy, Katy J Pearson, The Murder Capital, Prima Queen, Nilufer Yanya. The future lies in the smaller fonts, and it was acts like this, new acts, that took the victory. The Maccabees were amazing because they were always going to be. But overwhelmingly, what they did at All Points East was bring everyone together and prove that there is no heyday, it keeps getting better.
