On 23rd November, we were invited down to Glasgow’s OVO Hydro to see the energetic IDLES on their ‘LOVE IS THE FING’ Tour.
Before the band had even come on, I looked around the venue and saw that the crowd was definitely up for it tonight. Anticipation was the feeling at that time, and fans talking about their past experiences at a gig of theirs. Hearing such stories from other fans made me even more excited. The lights dimmed around 8:45pm and on came the band. I distinctly remember the drummer Jon Beavis sat down and stomped down on his kick drum to a beat that you could feel batter in your chest, it was intense. Roars filled the arena as frontman (one of our own) Joe Talbot took to the stage as they started their first song ‘IDEA 01’ from their new album ‘TANGK’ which came out in February. The following song was much more upbeat ‘Colossus’ which got everyone dancing, and in between songs Talbot would say to the crowd that he heard Glasgow was one of the best places to play a gig at. He would then proceed to get the crowd to split into two sides of the room and when his next song fired up, both sides would run into each other and jump around to the post-punk sound.
The full night was straight energy everywhere you looked. One member in particular was guitarist Lee Kiernan who was just fascinating to watch, you could see the man headbanging and running around making full use of the stage so much that it looked like he was possessed by a demon. The lights would compliment this demonic moving as the lights were strobes of mainly whites and reds.
Talbot would speak to the crowd at how he wasn’t sure if he was Scottish as he would tell stories of visiting Scotland when he was younger, after this he was met with the crowd chanting back at him “one of us” so aye, he’s ours noo. The night was filled with new and old songs such as “Mother” which went down a treat. The crowd was non-stop energy all night with folk partaking in crowdsurfing, pint chucking and pretty sure I saw some shoe chucking as well. And it wasn’t just the crowd that was crowdsurfing, there was Kiernan and other guitarist Mark Bowen flying through the crowd’s tsunami of hands all the while playing their guitars.
During the show, Bowen would burst into song and started singing a snippet of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, he would sing it with his arm round Talbot and was a really wholesome moment. There was also another song he would sing between songs and I cannot remember what it was, so if you were there and remember it, please comment on the post and let me know because I haven’t managed to get it right.
I really love listening to this band as they write and sing about such emotional, raw and confrontational matters and during their live show they would chant “Free Palestine” and “F*ck the King”. And nearer the end they played the great ‘Danny Nedelko’ which the fans screamed back at the band. Got to love them. At the end, they also played the fantastic ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’ and ‘Dancer’ which was phenomenal to witness.
This band is really a must listen to and I will most definitely be seeing the energetic entity when they hopefully visit Scotland again.