Emma Wilkes<\/a>
\n \/ 4 August 2025\n <\/p>\nReview<\/p>\n
Joined by the likes of The Voidz & Lambrini Girls, the post-punks played their biggest ever headline shows for a special hometown weekender<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything around this square is the geography of my growing up as a musician,\u201d says Joe Talbot, casting his eye over the 14,000 people here for the first night of IDLES\u2019 big homecoming. He frequented beloved Bristol venue, The Louisiana, which lies less than half a mile away on the other side of the river. Not far from here, he suffered the psychotic episode that inspired the writing of \u2018The Wheel\u2019. Somewhere in the vicinity, he was \u201callegedly arrested\u201d. It\u2019s plain to see \u2013 looking at such a large hometown crowd, in a setting bordered by trees and Georgian buildings that feels more intimate than it is, he is humbled. \u201cI am eternally grateful, and baffled.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are their only UK shows this year, a final blowout for the era of their last album TANGK and a noisy celebration of their story so far. As they crest the 10th anniversary of their 2016 debut Brutalism, they\u2019ve scrambled up the ranks far faster than many bands of their ilk, neatly straddling the line between the mainstream and the alternative sphere. They\u2019ve attracted everyone from tattooed indie kids to elder punks to black-clad, edgier types. They\u2019ve curated two contrasting line-ups for these shows, opposing poles which together embody the full spectrum of what it is they do.<\/p>\n
Friday caters to the punk crowd, the more straightforward of the two bills but with a finger firmly on the pulse of British guitar music. Lambrini Girls\u2019 squalling riffs and life-affirming appetite for chaos \u2013 \u201cAre you ready to FUCK?\u201d, is vocalist and guitarist Phoebe Lunny\u2019s opening line \u2013 makes them feel like headliners in their own right, while Soft Play stomp and swagger through uproarious songs about everything from bin juice accidents, girls fighting, the lack of a hi-hat on Isaac Holman\u2019s drum kit and grief.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s more eclectic line-up is primed to smash minds open, beginning with Grove\u2019s intelligent yet party-starting coalescence of gritty hip-hop and performance poetry, and Scaler\u2019s dystopian fusion of electronica and metal. Leftfield as they may be, the crowd are appreciative, before Hinds\u2019 sun-bleached riffs mark a return to terra firma. The Voidz plunge the crowd into their weird world with their angular, choppy wall of sound which oddly matches Julian Casablancas\u2019 rambling stage banter and spaced-out mannerisms, cradling the mic as he sings like he\u2019s having a love affair with it.<\/p>\n
Then it\u2019s time for the men of the hour. Both setlists are studded with their biggest live staples: the slow-burning crawl of \u2018Colossus\u2019; the skippy \u2018I\u2019m Scum\u2019; the sobering \u2018Mother\u2019 and the joyful \u2018Dancer\u2019, to name a few, all opening pits and propelling beers flying left, right and centre. From there, they\u2019re picking from a grab bag of deep cuts. The Friday crowd gets \u2018Television\u2019, \u2018When The Lights Come On\u2019, \u2018The Beachland Ballroom\u2019 and a rogue yet fun airing of \u2018Date Night\u2019. Saturday\u2019s lot get \u2018Samaritans\u2019, \u20181049 Gotho\u2019, beloved ballad \u2018Roy\u2019 and \u201cthe oldie but averagey\u201d \u2018Well Done\u2019. It\u2019s Saturday\u2019s choices that seem to be the most successful, embracing the rowdiness the crowd crave, while a couple of slower cuts on the Friday sound just a little too thin and slight.<\/p>\n
The weekend\u2019s gathering is simultaneously personal and political. Cries of \u201cVIVA PALESTINA\u201d are steady and constant, with QR codes to donate to Medical Aid For Palestinians appearing on the screens. The overarching tone, however, is not one of anger, but of the unity IDLES have always called for. \u201cWe need to get together and show each other and remind each other that what it is that makes us human beings \u2013 showing love,\u201d says Joe. He\u2019s hardly short of it himself, his speeches brimming with gratitude. \u201cThank you so much for making home feel like home,\u201d he says at the end of Saturday\u2019s gig. To reference the album they\u2019re best known for, in their home, and in a place renowned for its leftist politics, they epitomise joy as an act of resistance.<\/p>\n
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