Mazes, Louisiana, Bristol

Against what some might think, the life of the touring band really isn’t that much of a glamorous one. Hours and hours of driving in a knackered old van after a night’s sleep on a promoter’s floor fuelled only by a petrol station egg and cress sandwich and a bottle of Diet Coke can only really be made worse with the introduction of a vehicle mechanical issue. Poor Mazes, it’s exactly the fate the three-piece suffered - causing the cancellation of their Birmingham date and them being towed by the good folk of the AA from Liverpool all the way back to their base in east London.

Not that you would have picked up on any of this from their performance at Bristol’s Louisiana. The three-piece, fresh from the release of second album ‘Ores & Minerals’, seem in good spirits and are on top form as they rattle their way through a 40-minute set to the busy pub attic venue near the centre of the city. Not even a broken guitar string mid-way through first song (and new album opener) ‘Bodies’ can put them off - the live version of the song made even longer than its already 7-minutes length, with bassist Conan and drummer Neil stretching out the jam while frontman Jack gets the guitar restrung by a helpful volunteer in the vocalist of local support band GuMM.

With a set largely made up of material taken from the new record, what the gig lacks in the lo-fi pop immediacy of tracks from ‘A Thousand Heys’ (with only two songs played from their debut full-length) is more than made up for in the experimental kraut-ish groove of new cuts like ‘Dan Higgs Particle’ and ‘Ores & Minerals’ - the three-piece well-attuned, bouncing off each other like a band comfortable in their own skin and each other’s company. Chuck in a cover of ‘Organ Harvest’ by Lungfish and the energy of local live music legend Big Jeff Johns leaping around up front and this is a very strong set from a band that surely deserve more credit and attention.