Maximo Park - Live Review

Maxïmo Park

O2 Academy Oxford. Saturday 8 October 2022

When one of your favourite bands comes to your hometown venue on a Saturday night, there was only one place I was going to be. Maxïmo Park rolled into the O2 Academy Oxford for a show that just rolled back the years for me.

A band that soundtracked my university experience many moons ago sounded just as good, bringing back those nostalgic memories that only songs can do. A few band member changes had occurred since I had last seen the band, but the main man Paul Smith was still front of house doing what he does best. Entertaining. Dancing. Bringing the positive energy that has always been there with lyrics that resonate.

Smith dressed in standard bowler hat and ‘No War’ t-shirt introduced the crowd to newer track ‘All of me’ before heading back to visit the classics ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’ and ‘Leave this island’. Now it’s time to party!

The rest of the show goes back through the bands back catalogue which still sounds as good today as they always have done. Songs such as ‘Our Velocity’, ‘Going Missing’, ‘Books from Boxes’ and ‘Apply some pressure’ are timeless and get the crowd up and bouncing. Many inside the venue can’t have been very old when ‘A Certain trigger’ came out, so it’s good to see the band gaining new fans over the years. Newer track 'Great art' sounds great.

An encore which consisted of ‘Karaoke Plays’, 'Girls Who Play Guitars' and 'Graffiti' had everyone around me in arms singing along to what are proper songs.

An amazing evening topped off by being in the Photo Pit shooting the band.

Support for the evening comes from 'Pip Blom'