Maximo Park / B>E>A>K

Despite what it says on the gold-dust like tickets for tonight, the gig didn't actually start at 7.30pm - it really began (for me, at least) at 5am last Saturday morning, as that's when I was stood outside Alt-Vinyl, a fantastic independent record shop in Newcastle, in order to ensure that I gained admission for tonight's homecoming show from Newcastle's favourite sons.

The venue is marvellously tiny, and around a hundred of us trooped through the back room of The Cumberland Arms, and made our way upstairs. The whole event had a fabulously DIY feel to it, from the queuing for tickets, to the hand-stamping, to the band's gear piled high in one corner of the room. In an age where music has been mass marketed almost to death, tonight proved that it can still excite people enough to make them stand in the cold for hours to gain admission to a pub.

Opening act B>E>A>K are nothing if not intriguing. Taking to the stage wearing brightly coloured bird masks and matching shirts, I was worried that they were going to be the sort of band who value gimmicks above content, but I couldn't have been further from the mark. Their take on dirty, bluesy improvisation was fascinating, and highly enjoyable. There is not a hope in hell of them ever reaching a mass market, but that's just another reason to love them.

By the time Paul Smith and co. fight their way through the crowd at around 9.30pm, the room is packed, and even the walls are sweating, but as uncomfortable as it is, there is not one person here who would rather be elsewhere. Without saying a word, the band launch into the superb 'Girls Who Play Guitar', and to use a local phrase, the place goes mental. It's a corker of a tune, and the lurching intro and razor sharp lyrics prove that Maximo Park have not strayed too far from the formula which made 'A Certain Trigger' such an exemplary debut album.


The band look delighted to be back playing in the kind of venue where they made their name in the north east. Smith seems exhilarated, and the in jokes are flowing thick and fast between them, which is always a sign of a band at ease. This is a band who clearly know they are making great music, and this confidence leads to an onstage relaxation which has often been absent when Maximo Park have played live in the past.

As this show is primarily to road test the new album (rumoured to be titled 'Earthly Pleasures'), it is no surprise that we get the new record in it's entirety tonight. As long as the new material is as good on record as it is live, the album should be a belter. Of the eighteen tracks we were treated to, thirteen were new. Of course, some of them, such as 'By The Monument', have been doing the rounds for a while, and are already starting to become crowd favourites. 'Russian Literature' is Maximo Park at their best - foreboding basslines and intriguing lyrics and chaotic keyboards. 'Our Velocity' is an exhilarating ride which gets the first bounce action of the night, and the heartbreaking 'Karaoke' shows Smith's songwriting at it's best.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Maximo Park gig without a few songs from the first album, and tonight we get 'Kiss You Better', 'Apply Some Pressure', 'The Coast Is Always Changing', and 'Going Missing', with the excellent 'Limassol' being kept for the very end. What still surprises me is that the older material, despite feeling like it has been around forever, still does not feel stale, which is surely testament to the quality of the songwriting.

By the time the last chords of 'Limassol' have faded out, and Smith has said his goodbyes, the post-mortem starts among the fans. The general consensus is that the new material has more than met the challenge created by an album as good 'A Certain Trigger', and if the people I spoke to are representative of the record buying public, the forthcoming album will go down very well indeed.

FUTURE GIGS