Having met the band in the flesh, just a few weeks ago, of course I couldn't wait to see them live again.
We
got stuck in a monster traffic jam (Great North Runners heading
back south) and missed the first couple of songs..drat!!! I HATE
to miss the moment when the band hit the stage!!! We almost ran
into the venue, and were met by a wall of awesome (I use that
word in its original meaning) penetrating sound. Although the
venue was heavingly full, we managed to get up to the front on
Stefan's side of the stage. The audience were very young and
VERY well dressed. Tons of spider black string vests, corkscrew
hair and black, black eyes. I myself wore a denim jacket...lol.
The two girls next to me were peeling dots off paper with gay
abandon...hmmmm
The band were well into Haemoglobin, and the audience was rocking. A quite scary mosh pit was in full swing, Stefan was behind Brian, sticking the end of his guitar into Brian's bot, in an almost Ziggy moment. They both giggled. "Here we go!!", I thought with rising happiness. It was ALL uphill after that.
36 degrees was a wrung out singalong, with the audience howling their empathy and Brian lapping it up.
All the songs from the new album sounded hugely powerful, live, and Blue American was no exception. I waited with baited breath for 'those mother fuckers got it wrong'. I love the way Americans say the 'f' word.....lol. Us Brits often pull our punches with it and sort of mutter it with schoolboyish reticence. None of that here..gloriously.......
Commercial
For Levi followed, its 'orrible themes sung like lovers words."Just
what is an assissi lie?" I wondered.
Further highlights included a rather beautiful rendition of the song they did with David last year, Without You I'm Nothing, and the audience loved Slave To The Wage, which seems to have caught the zeitgeist at the moment. The theme of encouragement to break out from your nine to five routine and follow your dream is quite an old one, but when I think about it, its a lot of years since it had an airing, and maybe it's time has come once again.
The best song of the night for me was Peeping Tom. The piano was moved to centre stage, and Brian sat down and played and sang with little accompaniment. The lights picked him out, and the lovely hook, 'I'm weightless, I'm bare, I'm faithless, I'm scared' had maximium shivery impact. Brian has said that you can't write songs if you aren't prepared to put your heart into them, and this one felt very much 'for real' There was a film running on the wall, behind the band, which added to the disturbing, uncomfortable twisted tenor of this song.
That
was the last song of the main set, and they came back after a
short break for the encores of Taste In Men (this had
a HUGE backing which started without them, and another film),
an overwhelmingly exciting, pounding wall of noise; followed
by Nancy Boy, which produced such a huge pogoing wave
of audience ecstasy that we had to stand back out of the way
of the falling bodies....lol, and of course,Pure Morning,
that wake up call to the damned, 'day's dawning, skin's crawling'......
As soon as the last lyric had been sung, Brian exited, head
held high. A true star move, which made me grin with delight.
Stefan and Steve finished it off between them, Stefan coming
to the front of the stage, smiling and provocative ( he's nowhere
near so shy onstage as off it...sexy beast...lol), and Steve
shouting something vehement at the audience and flinging his
drumsticks into the crowd.
Phew, what a gig! This band are not like any other band, and fit neatly into no compartment. They are experts at offering beautiful songs about very much less than beautiful subjects. This challenge to convention and conventional ideas reminds me of the best in cult art, not only music, but also book (maybe Lolita) and film ( maybe Blue Velvet). Placebo (Latin for "I will please") have something unique. Catch them on the Black Market Music tour.
:))
spaceface
Set list
Black-eyed
Days Before You Came
Allergic
Scared Of Girls
Haemoglobin
Bionic
36 Degrees
Passive Agressive
Blue American
Commercial For Levi
Every You Every Me
Special K
Without You I'm Nothing
Slave To The Wage
Teenage Angst
Narcoleptic
Peeping Tom
Taste In Men
Nancy Boy
Pure Morning
pics : 'resident wierdo', nme, dot music, spaceface,