For more than 20 years, Geordie heroes Maxïmo Park have been one of the UK’s best manufacturers of certified indie bops. Now back with their eighth studio album Stream of Life, we went down to Metronome to hear the new album played in full before its official release on Friday…
There’s no support tonight, so after a quick stop at the Jam Café on the way, it’s straight into Metronome and on with the Maxïmo Park show. The band take to the stage with enigmatic frontman Paul Smith emerging last, donned in a smart jacket and his iconic bowler hat. They kick off with recent single My Own Worst Enemy before giving the audience the rundown on this evening’s events.
“We will be playing our new album in full, because we believe in it” says Smith, clearly excited to give the crowd the opportunity to hear the record in a live setting.
With the order confirmed it’s then into another single, Favourite Songs, which Smith shares is simply about “listening to music in your bedroom.” It’s great to not only hear the new songs live, but also get insight into the meaning behind each one too. After two lively opening performances with lots of movement and jumping about, Smith already needs to shed his jacket, offering his compliments to the venue’s air conditioning unit as well as the radiant audience as he does.
Dormant ‘til Explosion is up next, which is one of the immediate highlights. Smith details recording
the album in Atlanta Georgia and how pleased they are with the results from the sessions.
“Hopefully by the end of this set, you’ll also be happy with your purchase” he jokes, thanking the
audience for buying the new album in advance. The End Can Be As Good As The Start is another song that really comes across live, with its Joy Division-esque blend of bass and synths suggesting a strong opening run to the record.
After an energetic start, its then time for a breather with Armchair View. Guitarist Duncan Lloyd picks up his acoustic guitar for this one, with the song offering a more mellow and understated moment in tonight’s proceedings, and no doubt the new album too. Most recent single Quiz Show Clue is declared “a humorous song about a not so humorous subject”, while the album’s title track is “about trying to get the balance right in your life.” Smith then refers to the lyric “it’s just a bit of fun, but we believe it” revealing to the audience that to the band, “that’s the whole point of making music.”
It's a heart-warming moment, with Smith quickly bringing the attention to something more historic.
“I believe this next song is our first song with an Umlaut” he reveals, declaring that the Ï in Maxïmo Park is alone no longer. It draws big cheers and laughs from the crowd, before the band launch into the catchy beats of Doppelgänger Eyes. After the song finishes Smith jokes: “How do you like the G in Nottingham? Because I never hear it when I’m here!”
The crowd are clearly getting into it now, with the first chants of “Maxïmo! Maxïmo!” coming from the audience following I Knew That You’d Say That. Penultimate track The Path I Chose is then “upbeat, but with a sting in the tail” and, before you know it, the album playthrough is almost over.
“Fantastic!” is yelled from the audience in response to the new material, with Smith joking that its like he planted someone in there to say that. After a promise to follow Anthony Joshua’s words of wisdom and “stay humble”, Smith thanks everyone for coming out and closes the main set on the Thatcher-damning, No Such Thing as a Society.
The band briefly exit the stage, but there’s no way they aren’t going to treat this respectful and loudly applauding crowd to an encore. “Well, there was a room full of people who didn’t leave, so we thought we’d do a few more” says Smith, who is clearly having a fun time tonight.
It’s now time for a few old favourites, with the room coming alive to the frantic, whirring synths of Our Velocity. “Tuesday nights, what they need is our velocity” states Smith, reacting to the sudden increase in crowd movement. After a quick pitch to try to shift some old stock of baby throws at the merch stand, it’s into Baby, Sleep off their last record, before an earth-shattering rendition of second album favourite, By The Monument. They then throw it right back to the start by ending emphatically on Graffiti, one of the first songs they wrote together 21 years ago.
After tonight, I think a full album playthrough before release should be normalised. This format for an album launch show just seemed to work perfectly, with the crowd not just anxiously waiting around for the classics at the end, but genuinely keen to get an audible sneak-peek of the new music. Of course, it helps when the band on stage is as modest, gracious, full of vigour - and just downright brilliant - as Maxïmo Park.
Maxïmo Park performed at Metronome on 24th September 2024.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
