Maximo Park / Art Brut live at The Ritz

Scott Zverblis — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:00:42 +0000

Most of the Ritz audience looked confused and slightly irritated whilst first support act Das Wunderlust were singing (or should that read shouting?) – their experimental pop-trash doing little to excite the crowd. “Who is this annoying band?” one punter cried.Art Brut however, needed little introduction to the vast majority of Maximo Park’s audience and while tearing through tracks from their forthcoming new album and predecessor ‘Bang Bang Rock and Roll’, it’s easy to wonder why the big in Japan bruisers aren’t headlining here themselves. Art Brut are an exciting band and without them the music world would be a much duller place

Soon enough, Maximo Park appeared onstage and the band launch straight in to live favourite, Graffiti which was followed by new favourites Girls Who Play Guitars and Our Velocity.

Sporting an intensely manic stare and huge, mischievous grin, the super-athletic singer pranced and jumped around the stage like Batman’s archrival The Riddler. He even wore a clockwork orange style bowler hat – the comic book villain’s trademark.

Thankfully, no crimes against music occurred throughout the evening – Maximo Park don’t have any criminally sounding tunes – just a back catalogue of memorable Indie-pop anthems. Songs like Apply Some Pressure, Missing Song and The Coast Is Always Changing were all performed to a venue packed with hysterical partygoers.

Even, the new album tracks, By The Monument and Nosebleed fail to cause a dip in the party atmosphere.

The party mood continued with the encore –The Unshockable seems the most immediate of the new lot, and by the end of an adrenaline fuelled set, The Ritz Ballroom was well and truly worn out, sweaty, but couldn’t have a bigger grin on its face if it tried.

This Is Not TV » Art Brut

Maximo Park / Art Brut live at The Ritz