It`s a bit surprising to realise that alt-Indie rockers Maxïmo Park released their debut album `A Certain Trigger` just over twenty years ago and tonight`s performance and indeed their tour is loosely based around this album that launched these Newcastle-Upon-Tyne art rockers.
First up though are art come garage rock outfit Art Brut. If i`m honest I can`t remember if I’d seen the band before but was quite looking forward to their show. The group are named after French painter Jean Dubuffet`s definition of outsider art – art by prisoners, loners, the mentally ill, and other marginalized people, and made without thought to imitation or presentation. The band kick off with the opening bars to AC/DC`s `Back in Black` before singer Eddie Argos / Kevin Macklin whose talents also includes writing comics and painting appears and guides the band through `Formed a Band` with it`s kind of self-deprecating spoken word over sharp angular music. `My Little Brother`, another ironic offering regarding the frontman`s younger sibling quickly follows before the singer shares that they toured with Maxïmo Park twenty years ago so it was great to be back out on the road with them again. The band have five albums and shared a flavour of these with `She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like a Hit`)`, the reflective `Pump Up the Volume`, `Modern Art` the wonderfully amusing bittersweet tale of yearning adolescent love `Emily Kane` before leaving us with the superbly titled `Wham! Bang! Pow! Let`s Rock Out!` It was a thoroughly enjoyable thirty five minutes of jagged riffs with moving and at times tender lyrical content shared atop. Hopefully, Art Brut will be back in Brum in the not too distant future.
The core of vocalist Paul Smith, guitarist Duncan Lloyd and drummer Tom English who are Maxïmo Park expand to a five-piece who include the additions of Jemma Freese on keyboards and backing vocals along with Andrew Lowther on bass when on the road. As usual there`s no fuss as the quintet hit the stage and head straight into the drum led `Signal And Sign`, the skewed romance of `Graffiti` and `Postcard Of A Painting` a tale of unrequited love, all from the `A Certain Trigger` album. Tonight`s format for want of a better word is a nod to the band`s debut album whose twentieth anniversary we are celebrating sprinkled with cuts from other albums from throughout their illustrious career. Hence the frenetic `Our Velocity` is aired along with the reflective `Leave This Island`
Amongst the many tonight from the album were the rhythmic `Once, a Glimpse`, emotive `I Want you to Stay`, `The Night I Lost My Head`, `Kiss You Better` with its double meanings, and `Limassol` about a holiday romance that`s gone wrong.
Highlights for me though were the poignant questioning `Questing, Not Coasting`, upbeat `Favourite Songs` probably my favourite MP number which acknowledges the effectiveness of pop music, rhythmic ballad like `Versions of You`, wild and intense `The National Health` which sends this packed crowd into a frenzy and angular `Girls Who Play Guitar` about differing views on a relationship. The show concludes with another favourite of mine `Apply Some Pressure`, a superb earworm of a number about starting again after you lose everything.
The band head off and are encouraged to return and do so for an encore which includes a couple of final cuts from `Trigger` with the melancholic `Acrobat` about the aftermath of a breakup in mainly spoken word form and the similarly reflective `Going Missing` with `Books from Boxes` about loving someone who belongs to another sandwiched Inbetween.
Once again tonight was a masterclass in how to woo an audience. There was a solid musical backbone or engine house with singer Paul Smith`s jump kicks and on-stage hyperactivity leading and conducting this quintessentially English group. I love that his Northumberland or Tyne and Wear accent shines throughout these delightfully captivating numbers. This show was day six of thirteen dates in the UK this month before the band head across to Europe for a further nine dates next month followed by a few dates in Australia in April.
Every time I`m lucky to see Maxïmo Park, I find that what I love most about the ninety minutes spent in their company is that there`s no fancy gimmicks just good old fashioned well written songs which have a point to make which they do shared across some of the catchiest energetic alternative indie rock around.
This tour is almost completely sold out but if you are lucky enough to have a ticket or can obtain one, you`re in for a treat.
