There’s always been a warm welcome for Maximo Park when they have visited the Second City in the past, with Birmingham 02 Institute being a regular haunt over the years. Tonight, however, finds the band for the first time in the plush surroundings of the Town Hall.
The group have a long record of selecting excellent support acts for their shows and tonight’s special guests are Wakefield’s The Research, who enjoyed a number of Top 75 hits in the mid-2000s before embarking on an extended hiatus. The three-piece band put in a charming half hour and remind us all how good those singles are, highlights being ‘The Way You Used To Smile’ and ‘C’mon Chameleon’. Russell Searle on lead vocals continues to mistreat his trusty Casio keyboard and is an engaging and amusing presence, (dedicating ‘She’s The One I Love’ to himself!), while Georgia Lashbrook on bass/vocals and Sarah Williams on drums/vocals also look like they are having a blast and are glad to be back. Williams reveals that she is actually from Wolverhampton and doesn’t even get booed (indeed, I cheered, but that’s me!). The Research are a good fit for a Maximo Park crowd and there were certainly a few of their own fans in too, judging by the singing along to the hits.
Touring in support of their recent eighth album, the excellent Stream Of Life, Maximo Park sets are never easy to predict – they are always going to play a number of songs from their latest record, but the other inclusions are certainly harder to guess. Paul Smith bounds onto the stage with his trademark high energy just in time for the vocals of ‘Your Own Worst Enemy’ from the new album before dialling back to the much-loved 2005 debut A Certain Trigger for ‘Postcard Of A Painting’. Smith has probably completed his 10,000 steps for the day by the time the second song has finished. Jemma Freese on keyboards is also an enthusiastic presence (taking over nobly from the similarly upbeat Lukas Wooller five years ago!), whereas the rest of the band seem more content to be on the margins of the stage. Vanessa Briscoe Hay (of cult American bands Pylon and Supercluster) isn’t here in person, but her vocal contributions on ‘Dormant ‘til Explosion’ are partly covered by a recording and partly by Freese.
If I may indulge in a little personal aside at this point, when my son was born 15 years ago, Quicken The Heart was forever playing in our house. Tonight there is an emotional moment as he stands next to me singing along to‘Questing, Not Coasting’ from that record – still my personal favourite of the band’s discography and ‘Questing…’ is a perfect choice to represent it. Each album contributes at least one song to the proceedings, another Page family favourite coming just a couple of songs later with the ebullient title track from The National Health.
“The quietest song we have ever done” is how Smith introduces ‘Armchair View’, again from the new record, with pin-drop quietness in the audience allowing the song to shine and to provide a contrast with the band’s more regular energetic output. ‘Quiz Show Clue’ is the pick of the new songs, showcasing a wonderful guitar performance from Duncan Lloyd, as ever delivered in an un-showy, efficient manner.
There’s an incendiary run through the band’s biggest hit, ‘Our Velocity’, as ever with Smith singing as if his life depended on it. The underrated Risk To Exist, described by Smith as “Our funky political album, which is exactly what the World did not need!”, is represented by ‘What Did We Do To You To Deserve This?’, while the new album’s lead single ‘Favourite Songs’ paves the way for a singalong end to the main set, as it is followed by ‘Books From Boxes’ and the evergreen ‘Apply Some Pressure’, the song which actually hit the Top 20 twice in eight months back in those heady days of 2005.
Smith reveals that the band like to ‘rest’ songs and then revive them years later; it’s a formula that works well for Maximo Park, as while they would probably rarely leave out the likes of ‘Our Velocity’ or ‘Apply Some Pressure’, they change set lists during tours and no-one bats an eyelid at the lack of hits like ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ or ‘Going Missing’ – as next time they could well be back! After they end with a frenetic ‘Graffiti’, the Birmingham crowd depart knowing that they have witnessed a band still at the peak of their powers a couple of decades in.
Featured image: Brandon Page
Other photos: Andy Page
