Maximo Park at Brixton Academy

Last night we went to the long-awaited gig by Maximo Park at Brixton Academy. I haven't seen the lads play live in ever so long and I've been deliberately not over-listening to the new album, 'Quicken The Heart', so I can hear the songs afresh played live. So, the tried and tested war plan was to get through security, zoom to the merch stand, then the cafe to buy bottles of diet coke, up to the bar for beer and then into the upstairs (unreserved) seated area. We missed the first band, Stricken City, but saw The Noisettes who sounded a bit olde worlde rockabilly but had a great wam-bam-tish drummer.

The Maximos set out to confuse by changing their normal places on the stage, with Duncan on the right (looking at the stage) and Archis and Lukas on the left. Then the lights dimmed and there they were, music pumping and lights going wild, as one great song followed another, with Paul running and jumping all over the stage.

The lads were promoting the new album so we were treated to a selection of new classics as well as earlier classics from the first two albums. The new songs work well live and stand up with the rest of the set, providing a change of mood and pace, more keyboards and more jumping round. Paul's voice is getting more expressive as he plays with words and goes for strange rhymes to twist his tongue around.

Favourite songs from 'Quicken The Heart' were 'In Another World (You'd Have Found Yourself By Now)', 'Roller Disco Dreams' (with it's line about watching fireworks over Brixton was mandatory for this gig), 'Overland, West Of Suez', 'Questing, Not Coasting', 'Wraithlike' and, of course, the first single, 'The Kids Are Sick Again'. Old favourites included, 'Going Missing', 'Our Velocity', 'Girls Who Play Guitars', 'Your Urge' and 'Limassol'. I was delighted to hear the crowd lustily singing along to 'Books From Boxes'. The encore started with a new song, 'That Beating Heart,' that I haven't heard before and assume will feature as a 'B' side - or maybe even a non-album single? - at some point. I liked it.

There were two downsides to the gig - no badges at the merch stand (so I bought a key ring) and having to squirm around in my seat to stand a chance of seeing Paul who spent most of his time down the front of the stage although I did see one scissor-kick - obscuring heads in front of me and the bar at the front of the balcony makes it difficult to see anything at the front of the stage. There was also a bit of overuse of the strobe-light-into-the-crowd thing, but other than that the lights were excellent. The lads were on top form, tight and loud and seemed to be having fun. Good on ya, lads!

And thanks to David Thousand Words for his pics that I nicked off Flickr - go and take a look!