Review: Maximo Park live at Bristol O2 Academy

Maximo Park show off their arsenal of singles in Bristol.

While their counterparts from the mid-2000s have either split up (then reformed), gone into semi-retirement with an album every five years, or moved on to other less successful musical styles, Maximo Park have remained steadfast.

A loyal fanbase has been treated to a heady catalogue of material largely of generally the same style, yet of a consistently high quality. As such, a Greatest Hits (or, more accurately, Singles) tour seems long overdue.

Paul Smith informs us from the stage that the idea for this tour came about because a new song, Great Art, had no album to call a home, yet the design for these shows (the Singular tour) seems geared around the release of a compilation album, though none has been forthcoming.

Smith alludes to the fact that the cost of vinyl is prohibitive these days, which may go some way to explain the missing piece of the jigsaw.

Regardless, the shows are an excuse for Smith and his bandmates (Duncan Lloyd on lead guitar, Tom English on drums, plus touring members Jemma Freese and Andrew Lowther) to revel in nostalgia, and Smith makes reference to knowing Lloyd and English for 20 years.

While the set opens with the shining zing of last year’s All Of Me, it’s not long before they career straight down memory lane with the matter-of-fact The Coast Is Always Changing, their debut single back in 2004.

Despite heckles from the crowd to play certain songs, Smith is playfully adamant that the setlist will consist entirely of singles and, indeed, what a collection they have.

Reflecting the nature of a band at this stage in their career, the older numbers receive the biggest cheers: the opening chords of Books From Boxes and Going Missing are cheered loudest, while the punching Our Velocity is celebratory, provoking a huge singalong. Yet one is struck by how comparatively unheralded the later material is, even though it’s of equal standing.

Smith gives the crowd fair warning that there may be some bile in his performance of a venomous The National Health (a diatribe against the Tory government which is becoming depressingly timeless) and is good to his word, while the poignant Versions Of You proves that they have few counterparts when it comes to melancholic guitar rock. Likewise, Midnight On The Hill from 2014’s Too Much Information album is almost unbearably nostalgic.

Hips And Lips buzzes and bruises, What Equals Love? features a near EDM strut and, speaking of electronica, the soothing keyboards of Leave This Island would be a welcome break from the high-tempo indie were it placed later in the set, rather than 3 songs in.

Get High, No I Don’t flirts with preposterousness but lands on just the right side of it, while Baby, Sleep (a number one in Latvia, the perpetually self-deprecating Smith jokes) is the earworm to end them all.

It’s not all the Smith show, with Lloyd getting intermittent chances to wring his guitar’s neck on I Want You To Stay and the sprightly The Kids Are Sick Again, while English proves himself to be the rock on which his band is built.

The beats of the songs may not be complex, but they are constant and the drummer is consistent to match. It may not read as a compliment, but if you don’t know a drummer is there then that’s a good sign. Lastly, Freese remains a joy to watch as she skips and dances throughout behind the keyboard.

Maximo Park are a no-frills band, rarely if ever elongating their material, so this format of punchy single after single suits them well. Sadly, it’s an intimate crowd, with Natalie Imbruglia and LIFE playing in the city centre on the same night, with the latter likely to take a share of Maximo Park’s audience.

Yet that’s no reflection on the band itself, still making us think and dance after 20 years. Long may they continue to do so.