A new venue is usually cause for celebration enough but a new town altogether is quite the novelty these days, especially one that takes four hours to get to; it takes a lot to get us to travel so far for a gig, (we’re not as young as we used to be).
But as the band in question are only playing two UK gigs this whole calendar year then that was enough to drag us down a few motorways on a gloriously summery Saturday.
And only because it’s IDLES.
They are almost at the end of their 15 month touring lap of honour for their 2024 Number One record Tangk, and have organised two hometown events before they go into hibernation again. They’ve done their best to try and make these special by handpicking the support, which last night saw them supported by Soft Play and Lambrini Girls amongst others.
Due to factors we only get to see one of the support acts tonight, but it’s the most potentially interesting one of the weekend. Metamorphosising daily into the American winner of an Eddie Argos lookalike contest, it’s Julian Casablancas and his intermittent project The Voidz.
His voice still sounds as fantastically emotionally detached as ever on the likes of ‘Pyramid Of Bones’, and the crowd want them to succeed, especially the guy right behind me who screams “You’ve still got it, Julian” after every single song, but their enthusiasm seems to wane as the hour-long set drifts on. It feels that his musical ambition is to pretend that he was never in The Strokes but The Voidz seems a weird way to disown a legacy.
It’s all becomes a bit bland, there’s cod reggae, 80’s guitar solos, and they finish with ‘QYURRYUS’, which sounds like a Turkish Jet2 advert, and probably the last great Casablancas song, (which was worryingly over 10 years ago now),‘Where No Eagles Fly’. I’m sure he’s happy, but it feels like a shame.
IDLES
At 8:44 (a minute early) the five members of IDLES (well, six including Colin Webster, their part-time saxophonist) come onstage and kick straight into the moody ‘Colossus’, a perfect opener as it has a gap in it, just before it goes manic at the end, a pause which frontman Joe Talbot uses to cheekily announce his Bristol mayoral campaign whilst splitting the massive crowd into two halves. And the mosh-pit begins, and boy does it begin.
Being on the barrier, it’s easy to see person upon person being carried over by the security (who earn their money tonight), then being let go to run off and do it again. This leads to the surreal sight of seeing Talbot singing “F**k the King” on ‘Gift Horse’ as someone in a full Elmo costume (yes, the head as well) crowd-surfs by.
There’s a few changes to their usual setlist tonight, the first of which being the welcome re-introduction of their early single, ‘Well Done’, introduced as “an oldie but an averagey”, and it’s clear to hear as the night goes on that the band are currently operating on a different level to anything else out there. Their rhythm section is sublime, the drumming from Jon Beavis especially drives them on, and the words of love from Talbot towards the crowd in between the songs make this evening a special end to the last year or so.
For a band who are permanently being derided by the haters for talking too much about/not saying enough about Ukraine, Gaza etc. (delete as applicable depending which way the wind is blowing), their shows since last year (pre-Kneecap/Bob Vylan furore) have always had a strong pro-Palestine message, and they step this up tonight, with a massive QR code appearing on screen to donate for medical help, as well as constant Free Palestine chants spread throughout the set.
An already emotional Talbot breaks at the end of a maniacal ‘1049 Gotho’, falling to his knees and visibly sobbing, the occasion of such a local big gig seems to have taken it’s toll. He composes himself to tell us that the early songs were written around where he was currently standing by “the people who saved his life”, and it’s hard to watch; it’s incredibly heart-warming.
‘Roy‘ is dedicated to Joe’s girlfriend, even though she’s “up in the tower watching the gig rather than with the people”, before a euphoric ‘Samaritans’, with it’s message of anti-toxic masculinity and it’s thrashing drum-work, would take the roof off if there was one. It makes you think that if we had a song like this when we were young then maybe the world wouldn’t be in the state it is today.
‘Crawl’ makes it feel even more like a church service or rally, the positivity coming from both the stage and the crowd is intoxicating. This seeps into ‘Exeter’, which sees a handful of said crowd go onstage with the band. The look of delight on the faces, just filled with absolute joy, is what IDLES are all about.
This is furthered still at the end of their pro-immigration anthem ‘Danny Nedelko’, when the subject himself, the real-life Heavy Lungs‘ frontman, is introduced onstage to a rapturous reception before he jumps into the crowd as the band try to beat the strict 10:30 curfew, which causes them to end with a very curtailed ‘Rottweiler’.
So, it was well worth the journey down south. A trip that I would be hoping to make again in the summer of 2027, but this time a bit further onto Glastonbury. The campaign to have them headline the main stage starts here. They have the songs, they have the message, they have the love. Give the people in charge really something to worry about.
(Photos: Cheryl Doherty)
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