Maximo Park - Brixton Academy, London - Friday 6th October 2006

First trip to Brixton for a few months (they don't seem to bother using it in the summer), to see Maximo Park. I seem to recall buying the tickets for this ages ago, just after they had headlined (and stolen the show) at the NME Awards Tour shows in February. But, in the meantime they have been keeping a pretty low profile, so it was strange to go to see them with so little hype in the run up.

Waiting for friends to show up meant that I missed both of the support bands, Hot Club de Paris, and Love Is All - not a good thing. Brixton Academy was "sold out", but it seemed easier to move around the place than it often is for "sold out" gigs - there were probably only a couple of hundred people fewer in there, but that makes for a much better experience all round. You can get to the toilet that much better, get to the bar, and get a decent vantage point from which to see the band.

With a fantastic lighting rig that was as good as that at the NME show, Maximo Park came on stage and ploughed straight into a new song, which sounded comfortingly familiar, and every bit as good as the material from their debut album. Graffiti followed soon after, and got a crowd surge and a rapturous response. For a one-album band, it was unsurprising that the set featured the vast majority of A Certain Trigger, but the pleasant surprise was how many new songs the band showcased. Even better was how damn good the new songs were!

More than many bands that you see whilst writing their second album, and showcasing its songs, I am really, really excited about hearing the new stuff on CD - the songs that were played tonight represented real development on the already-great material on the debut album. Some fantastic new songs, can't wait until they become loved by more people.

The set ended, as all good Maximo sets should, with Apply Some Pressure, which sent the audience wild. This gig was a triumph, not just consolidating the success achieved through an excellent debut album, but setting out a real mission statement for how good the followup could be. Can't wait to hear it.