The Maus That Roars

On Saturday night (26th November) John Maus was nervously smoking and drinking strong coffee outside the Poble Nou Casino in Barcelona. But this was more than standard pre-gig nerves. Maus had recently come from Madrid, where the night before he had performed at the Círculo de Bellas Artes to a largely hostile audience.

He was reportedly abused, and had beer and even a hamburger thrown at him. It was not something he was used to, and even described the experience as the "worst night of my life". He was hopeful that be would receive a warmer reception in the Catalan capital.

So what went wrong in Madrid?  And why was did Maus become a trending topic in Twitter - mostly due to the huge number of abusive and threatening Tweets aimed directly at him? Well, some described the concert as the worst they'd ever experienced. They were expecting a conventional performance - and John Maus does not do conventional. John Maus does strange. To be specific, he sings, screams and roars over backing tapes of this songs, whilst variously hitting himself in the head, beating his chest and violently swaying backwards and forwards.

This unconventional approach did not go down well in Madrid at all. Maus was forced to cut what is never a particularly long set short, and retire backstage. But Barcelona was different. Despite being in a seated venue, the audience at the Poble Nou casino were incredibly enthusiastic, rushing to the edge of the stage, filling the aisles and even (in the case of  members of  Catalan band Villaroel) trying to take part in Maus's traumatic performance.

Clearly the Barcelona audience had taken him to their hearts. The question is - was it purely due to the enthusiasm of the spectators to Maus's art, or was there an element of the Catalans wanting to show Madrid music fans that they were more open-minded, and culturally superior? Some exchanges on Twitter certainly indicated that some Madrileños suspect the latter.

The argument of the more constructive critics of the Madrid performance was that what Maus does on stage is performance art, not a "concert" and thus not a worthy addition to Primavera Sound. I disagree. I think that one of the great things about PS is its diversity. I also wonder who would decide on the difference between the categories, and under what criteria.

One reason I wanted to see John Maus live was because of the extreme nature of the criticism against him. "If he's pissed that many people off, he must be doing something right," was my reasoning. And I wasn't disappointed. I found the performance thrilling, brave and honest. You don't have to agree with me, of course, but I would like you to watch at least some of the video below before making your mind up. You could also read Primavera Sound's take on the Madrid gig and Maus's unique approach.