Music

The Zutons in Liverpool

It's not surprising that the Zutons fans gathered at the Pierhead, underneath Liverpool's famous Liver building are so excited. The local band have just had their first top ten hit and are in the middle of a run of sold out UK dates, then a world tour, playing to venues that hold thousands rather than hundreds. And yet today, in their hometown, they're playing an open-air gig to a crowd of about 300 - for free.

As compere, Edith Bowman says, by way of introduction: "They're a local band who've kind of conquered the world." She then asks us to welcome them home… but she doesn't need to. As soon as the dirty, rhythmic guitar pluckings of opener, Zuton Fever twang their way in, followed by cheeky Bulgarian folk-style parps of saxophone, there are screams. There's pogo-ing. A group of girls at the front is throwing confetti - and someone's even lobbed a pair of knickers towards the stage. It's probably safe to say that the Zutons are very welcome.

The band are promoting their second album, Tired of Hanging Around. Where their double-platinum debut came at you with immediately catchy, lyrically intriguing and genre-defying hits (five singles from it made the top forty), on the face of it this album sounds a little more conventional, definitely less bonkers. (Though the lyrics are, brilliantly, far weirder.) And yet on stage the new songs come into their own. First to be aired is the album's title track, which almost washes over you on CD but, here, suddenly you're aware of frontman, Dave Mcabe's vocal fluidity - one minute he's sweet and high atop the tune's driving drums and guitars, the next, gruff and gravelly - then virtually screaming the chorus at you so you feel its frustration with full force.

The Zutons exclusive footage

Check out exclusive video from The Zutons' Vodafone TBA gig at The Pierhead in Liverpool.

View The Zutons footage

There's something warmly democratic about the way all four non-drumming band members have equal billing, lined up at the front of the stage (yet each doing their own thing): bassist, Russell Pritchard, nods his curly hair like a fan caught on film in a private psychedelic moment at Woodstock; Mcabe looks angry and friendly at the same time; saxophonist Abi Harding generally grins and dances her own little happy dance between brassy flourishes, and an impassive-looking guitarist Boyan Chowdhury, impossibly cool under his lavish moustache, casually gives his guitar a blue-grassy push of the pedal every now and then. Behind them, drummer Sean Payne, attacks his kit with the abandon of Animal from the Muppets. You just want to get up there with them and join in the slightly freaky retro party.

Fortunately, the party vibe is all over the audience too. Helped by the likes of Dirty Dancehall which, particularly live, exhilaratingly plays on the classic Zutons technique of building a tune, layer by layer until it goes completely mental, with sparse, crunchy slices of riff and staccato sax overtaken by frenetic drum pounds and fever-pitch vocals. The sweet sixties jangle of Remember Me also hits the spot, with Chowdhury's guitars chiming lazily like late-afternoon sunshine. And just the experience of being surrounded by 300-odd Scousers happily stomping their feet to the self-help affirmation style chorus of Don't Ever Think (Too Much), is intensely invigorating. And, to boot, the sound system is amazing - even during the band's trademark psychedelic freak-out crescendos, each layer of sound remains distinct, echoing rich and clear out and across the Mersey.

"Today was just amazing. We were just walking through Liverpool and we saw it was happening so we came on down and it was just incredible. Superb."
Ryan and Sean, Walsey

"My favourite tune, man, Zuton Fever - every time. I loved it, quality, quality."
Ben, Stoke

"The Zutons are excellent. Superb. It was all fantastic really. The whole day was a massive success. Just look at all the people who have come out."
Chris, Anfield

The cheeky, up-tempo Valerie is another newie that goes down well with its bordering-on-bitter lyrics of lost love, wrapped up in sunny 50s rock and roll with lots of sugary 'ooh-oohs'. But of all the tracks on the new album, unsurprisingly it's the rollicking glam-rock stomper Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? that works Liverpool into a frenzy. Brassy sax, funky bass, frenetic drums and that killer catchy guitar riff collide T-Rex style with Mcabe's throaty, desperate demands for 'your love'. The tempo shifts as Harding gives a penultimate sexy twist on the line with slow-mo, honeyed vocals. One male fan is so inspired that he grabs a straight-faced security guard and serenades him with the chorus: "I'll chain you up, I make you mine, I keep you locked downstairs/With all the bugs and all the gnats, I feed you rodent hair" rasps Mcabe cheerily. On second thoughts, perhaps the Zutons do still have quite a bit of bonkers going on - it's just at its best appreciated live.