After playing the 10th anniversary of their album ‘A Certain Trigger’ at the Barrowlands in 2015, Maximo Park returned with the second last date on their ‘Sïngular Tour’. Maximo Park, from Newcastle upon Tyne, have been creating music that they love for over 20 years and have lots of fan favourites that they may not get to play as often anymore which I think was the reason for this tour. The ‘Sïngular Tour’ consists of the different singles they have released throughout their seven albums, allowing people to feel nostalgic whilst listening to some of their most popular songs.
They had played TRNSMT Festival this year in the summer time, this was a great opportunity to play in front of the Scottish crowd before showcasing this tour and it allowed for people to have the time to buy tickets for this show. Prior to both those shows, Maximo park had toured in December 2021 with their latest album “Nature Always Wins” which they played at St Lukes.
Bringing Amsterdam based band ‘Pip Boom’ with them throughout the whole tour, they double backed the end of their setlist with ‘Keep it together’ and ‘Daddy Issues’. The indie band helped hype the crowd up to listen to all their favourite Maximo Park bangers from the past.
As previously mentioned, they had toured with ‘Nature Always Wins’, and had started off their night at the Barras with their single ‘All Of Me’. This song was a reminder to their fans that they have been trying to expand on their musical horizon by exploring different styles of music. It has been four years since the album ‘Risk To Exist’ and they wanted to explore new styles and this inclined them to write more heartfelt songs.
Later on in the show, Paul Smith, lead singer, stated that he felt safe to share and sing about his political opinions whilst being in Glasgow. This then led into their song ‘The National Health’. Maximo Park are not shy when it comes to showing their political beliefs throughout their songs. The crowd roared in agreement and were excited for the song to start.
As part of their tour, they had asked their fans to choose what songs they wanted to play through a questionnaire and the most popular song to be played in Glasgow was ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’. This definitely made the gig seem more close and intimate, as we as a collective decided what songs were to be played.
Smith being an incredible front man and performer, would effortlessly run around the stage jump kicking the air and engaging with the audience. I overheard some women in the bathroom talking about how he is a great frontman, and how they sound so much better in person than on Spotify. For me, this gig was very nostalgic, even though I was probably one of the youngest people there!
They had played all of their greats, some of which are my favourite songs in the world, such as ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’ and I could not have asked for more. They finished their set off with the well awaited for ‘Graffitti’ and everyone gave their all to sing and jump around the ballroom.