Maximo Park

Maximo Park, Pip Blom, O2 Academy, Bristol, UK 10/10/2022

The first thing one notices with the artwork from Maximo Park’s latest LP

Undistinguishable from other British Indie-Rock Maximo Park have come a long way since realising their first album’ A Certain Trigger’ in 2005 with more recent turmoil amongst the band members nearly breaking up as a band as a founding member and keyboardist Lukas Wooller emigrated to Australia!

Maximo Park / Pip Blom – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK 30/09/2022

“Ooh, girls in the band”, says someone in front of me as Maximo Park take to the stage. And so it is, with bass and keys/backing vocal slots both taken with female musicians, although over the next hour or so, if there was any winning over to be done, it's done with energy, aplomb and, frankly, brilliance.

Anyone who has seen Maximo Park before knows that each show is something truly special. Energetic, emotional, and cathartic, they often feel like a breath of fresh air in comparison to the moody machismo that permeates the atmosphere of other indie bands' shows.

Smith was at his best though, when given material to work with that carried a chip on the shoulder as well as a romantic notion in the heart