I fear that I may have cursed Paul Smith lead singer of Maximo Park. During a previous tour I witnessed him being ''violently ill'' on stage mid-song, though being the true pro a quick wipe and he carried on to finish the song. Tonight he wears rock star dark shades throughout which he explains are not “too cool for school” but for medical reasons due to a recent eye operation.

Opening tonight's show is Teleman, a 4 piece from London (ex Pete & the Pirates) with Stereolab-style synths and guitar pop tunes sung with falsetto vocals which build into epics as they progress. They have further high profile supports with Franz Ferdinand and Metronomy coming up and their first album is released in May. 

“Hello Rock City and we're here to rock”, Paul Smith appears healthy enough tonight. Maximo Park recently released their 5th album 'Too Much Information', which although more electronic-based continues their tradition of angular, wordy songs about relationships with strong melodies and more than a few shout-a-long choruses.
 
Smith comes on wearing his usual suit and hat combo, tonight's choice being a fedora (not a trilby, please take note reviewer from Nottingham Post); his vocal and the band crashing into the throbbing synth of set opener 'Give,Get Take'  from the new album. Crowd favourite ' Our Velocity' from 'Our Earthly Pleasures' is played early on the crowd supplying the “Love is a lie, which means I've been lied to. Love is a lie, which means I've been lying too” end passage.

With Paul Smith leaping on and off the stage monitors, punching the air and throwing rock star shapes they have a genuine front man who's happy to engage the audience ;when the band have to stop and re-start the intro to 'Signal and Sign' he jokes “Did you enjoy that one? Our songs get shorter...”

Whilst the set leans heavily towards the new album, stand-outs being 'Lydia, The Ink Will Never Dry', 'Drinking Martinis' and 'Her Name Was Audre', tracks from all 5 albums are played, and when most Maximo Park songs weigh in at about 3 minutes you get plenty of them for your ticket price.

Closing with the big hitters 'Girls Who Play Guitars', 'Apply Some Pressure' and the epic building 'Midnight on the Hill' from the new album gets the crowd going with mini mosh-pits appearing down the front. Disappointingly they let the mood drop with the first encore choice of mid-tempo 'Where We're Going' but finish triumphantly in a blaze of lights and flailing arms in the crowd with 'Going Missing'.

It's probably the strength of their songs and the energetic live performances which means they've outlasted many of their contemporaries and curses aside expect to see Maximo Park, hats and all for a long while to come.

Alisdair Whyte