With the opening chords of the new song "Mayday (Maidez)" from the upcoming album "Beyond the Horizon" (in stores on September 9), it was apparent People In Planes were on a mission to prove to the New York City crowd at Mercury Lounge on Aug. 25 that these boys from across the pond could rightfully take their place among the many great bands that have played on the Lower East Side.

As the evening's "early" headliner - a title to satisfy egos, as lead singer Gareth Jones honestly pointed out after the second song of the evening - People In Planes did not disappoint with a rollicking 12 song set.

It did not take long for bombastic lead guitarist Peter Roberts to join the enthusiastic crowd, which only managed to dial up the enthusiasm that was already at a dangerously excessive level. Roberts would soon have to limit his crowd dancing to join the band onstage and share lead vocals on another new song, "Last Man Standing."

People In Planes, from Cardiff, Wales, bring a relentless energy to their show that engulfs the audience, whether one is familiar with their music or not. Of course, any audience reaction is going to be stronger when a band plays an old favorite - this was certainly the case on this evening as evidenced when the band played "Barracuda" off of their prior album - but what was amazing was how negligible the difference was in comparison with brand new music. Music, for the record, that is not even released yet!

The band said their good nights after playing the title track from their new album but, alas, was coerced by the crowd to continue after a leading a chant of, "One more song!" It should be noted this ritual is far from a foregone conclusion in these types of venues. People In Planes did not dare risk disgruntling the raucous crowd, delivering a balls-out version of "Narcoleptic" in the encore. It became evident that if allowed People In Planes could have played a 24 song set and the crowd - who the band had eating out of their hands - would have still been asking for more.

A band called skybombers opened for People In Planes, and later that evening Beatbox Guitar and Lucibel Crater played.

Story by Mike Ryan
Starpulse contributing writer