Hailing originally from London, this straight-down-the-line indie punk five-piece, who all now live in Brighton, are an exciting live spectacle.

Crammed into the newly-revamped Zap club, now known as Union, the crowd of students celebrating their freshers week couldnt have asked for a better start to their new lives.

Having been together for just 14 months, not only have the Maccabees played more than 40 gigs but they are now an incredibly tight and succinct live prospect.

Theyve also, and perhaps most impressively, managed to get themselves slots supporting the likes of the Subways, Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park, to name but a few, and have established themselves around the country as a band you should see in smaller venues such as these before they begin to play the likes of Glastonbury.

Smartly dressed (Fred Perry shirts buttoned to the very top) and strikingly energetic, they write pleasure-seeking indie punk for rebellious teenagers and slacker students. Think The Clash meets the Ordinary Boys or Hard-Fi.

The music feels like hedonism put to tape and the energy it is infused with so effectively live is reciprocated without hesitation from the crowd, who dance around endlessly and joyously.

Second guitarist Felix White explains the band are simply trying to make good music and have fun along the way and with the joyously brazen (yet impressively together) deliveries of such songs as X-Ray and Lego, it becomes clear they genuinely are that innocent. Theyre dead-set on making it all about the music and yet managing to have a raucous and eventful time in doing so.

Whats initially most striking about this band is the way they present themselves onstage: They stand tightly together as if they were riot police.

Main vocalist Orlando Weeks stagemanner is also somewhat reminiscent of Ian Curtis, stiffly spasming to the drum and bass sounds and staring at something in the distance. What comes out of his mouth is, however, assuredly different to Curtis mournful wails far more like an upbeat Ian Dury.

By the time the band perform the closer and one of the highlights of the set, Latchmere, the atmosphere in the club is just a joy to behold. Cheap drinks have been consumed in vast quantities and shoes have been danced down to bare material and yet the band and audience still look brand new it seems it would take a lot to tire this group of people out.

Playing in Brighton again on October 5 at the Freebutt, as part of Brighton Live 2005, youd be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining live band all week.