Maximo Park - London Shepherds Bush Empire - 11/5/07
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
There's something great about being right all along about a band, and it's amplified even more when that band gets better and better, into their second album and through to a dizzying set of UK dates that mark something of the mid-point in their total global takeover. Since Maximo Park walked onto the stage three years ago and said, "this is a new song, it's called 'Graffiti'", we haven't looked back. There's been single after single of groundbreaking guitar indie-rock supported by outstanding, arty-type, videos and one mo-fo of a debut album... then things got really exciting as the Maximo stage show went on the road and didn't stop rolling for nearly two years. At first they were gangly, and intensely hypnotic with shades of aggression and passion, and then they became jerky, forceful and dominant; poetically imposing even... and now they've taken the lid off it all.
Whatever restraint these lads, fronted by the metre-leaping daddy of all lead singers Paul Smith, had kept up until now, was all about to be let loose. The greatest song to open any gig, and we don't care who you are, is 'Graffiti'. The teasing opening riff slides into a power chord thrust that hurtles Smith twenty feet into the air and back down again with a big scissor kick and huge smile, both trademarks of the enigmatic poser, and when this song begins you know it's all about to kick off. When this song starts, you're captivated... no warm up, no messing around, you're just thrown head-first into some of the best guitar movements of the past decade and though Art Brut had delicately wound us up, Maximo Park were the reason for our gathering - their name so often seen with the words 'sold out' perched directly next to them in lights. There's a reason people hail this band as being one of the finest live experiences in the country, and all of those reasons were out on display at the Empire in May.
Once the destruction had been done by the bands entrance, new material such as 'Girls Who Play Guitars' and the flinging 'Our Velocity' stood tall next to classics like 'Going Missing' and 'The Coast Is Always Changing'. The old and new working together instead of competing for dominance, mashing both their debut and new album 'Our Earthly Pleasures' harmoniously together with a massive dynamism and cogency. You wonder how a new setlist will sound having spent so much time and emotion invested in one batch of songs but as each track landed onto the other it didn't matter what was old and new as it was all so genuinely brilliant. The fact this young Rockfeedbacker lost his phone during the fourth song might have spoilt what was clearly a groundbreaking return from the Northern heroes, but the presence of the band had in no way escaped the crowd, frenzied and elated as they were, swarming around the dancefloor as they did, probably destroying a perfectly good Nokia. Nobody could blame them for getting over-excited as yet another precision riff ground into the foundations of another lightning-fast indie anthem, in the frisking shape of probably the most intense guitar track in recent history, 'Apply Some Pressure'. This track alone transformed the soundtrack of 2005 and took Maximo into the homes and CD racks of anybody who wanted to dance their arses literally right off and still sounds as massive and important live today, years after it burned holes in our dancing shoes.
Maximo have always been a good live band and as exciting as you know it to be, there's a sense that without Paul it would all come crashing down. He was the last member of the ensemble to be added and at times, when Paul is giving himself two minutes to cool down, the show becomes lacklustre and loses its importance. The same could be said for a number of history's greatest bands, and the idea that a group depends on their magnetic lead singer to triumph is not a new issue, but a nonetheless disturbing realisation. Luckily though, Maximo Park do have Paul Smith, and because they do, as a band they're gob-smackingly irreplaceable. As a live show, theirs is one of the greats. In years people will still be talking about this band and their earth-shattering presentations of rebellious stage diving and string cutting that never fails to make a huge impact on its audience. You never get bored of seeing them, Smith being just too unadulterated to disregard, and so even if you've seen Maximo Park before we urge you to see them again... and again... and again, until you realise that they are in fact possibly the best live indie band in the country.
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