![\"Idles:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Idles_Bristol_01--scaled-e1754484617675.jpg\")
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Idles<\/strong> Bristol\u2019s Idles fill the square twice over in a hometown party. Elfyn Griffith catches day two\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Queen Square has a history of revolutionary insurrection. The 1831 Bristol Riots centred on Queen Square where the populace revolted over the House of Lords\u2019 attacks on electoral reform. This weekend\u2019s \u2018rioting\u2019 is a blaze of impassioned sounds and good times, infused, yes, with a political edge.<\/p>\n I mean this is Bristol after all; we don\u2019t do things in half measures, and if there\u2019s spleen to be vented then let\u2019s do it in style. Idles have always flown their colours from the mast and combine a righteous anger both general and personal. Just remember their zeal at last year\u2019s Glastonbury, where their fury over what is happening in Gaza was an integral part of their overall boisterously and infectiously chaotic performance.<\/p>\n Local acts Grove and Scaler are resounding punkily as the crowds build up from mid-afternoon, while Spanish duo Hinds\u2019 mood is more soulfuly anthemic. New York\u2019s The Voidz, fronted by Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, promises much but their drama, while intense and brooding, is too experimental on a night when people mainly want the local heroes\u2019 joyous intensity.<\/p>\n Idles do push those buttons; from the slow moody start of Colossus to a prowling and sometimes frenzied force throughout. That first number sees singer Joe Talbot parting the crowd for the first of many moshpit mayhems. It\u2019s a heaving sea at times with hits from their five albums raucously received and the chiming post-punk or whatever you want to call it, blitz of their sound thundering around the environs.<\/p>\n Talbot encaptures this in an emotional performance when thanking the crowd and displaying his affection for their support. He is literally in tears at some points, especially at the apex of a manic 1049 Gotho where he tearfully explains that the songs he wrote were about people who had literally saved his life. There is a searing truth and sadness sometimes amid the fury of the Idles material \u2013 he talks of his own mother\u2019s addictions and his own problems.<\/p>\n And the fury, of course, goes worldwide. Early on, after a short, impassioned, pro-Palestine message, a huge QR code goes up on the side screens for people to donate for medical help. There are \u201cFree Palestine\u201d chants throughout their set.<\/p>\n But fun with the fury,\u00a0 the anger is infused with a joy and a reckless devil-may-care attitude in the music and the performance. Powerful drumming from Jon Beavis, shouted vocals from a prowling Talbot, crowd surfing from the two animated guitarists \u2013 the ever-befrocked Mark Bowen, and the lavishy-haired Lee Kiernan \u2013 a deep menacing bass from Adam Devonshire. Mayhem and mirth, the personal and the political.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you so much for making us feel at home, at home\u201d says Talbot, voice on the verge of breaking again before the final ecstatic number Danny Nedelko. It\u2019s a refugee-rush, an immigrant song, a call to strength and love and solidarity and unison. And to top it all the real Danny Nedelko, now a Bristol citizen, real-life Heavy Lungs frontman, comes onstage at the end of it and is carried across the crowd as the band play Rottweiler. It\u2019s an uplifting moment.<\/p>\n No riot going on but a brilliant block party.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ~<\/strong><\/p>\n Idles can be found at their\u00a0website<\/strong><\/a>|\u00a0Facebook<\/a> |\u00a0Instagram<\/a> |\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Words by\u00a0Elfyn Griffith<\/a>. Elfyn tweets\u00a0here<\/strong><\/p>\n
Block Party, Queen Square, Bristol<\/strong>
2nd August 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Idles:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Idles_Bristol_05--scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>After kicking off the Block Party weekend on the Friday evening with solid support from Soft Play and The Lambrini Girls, their and Idles\u2019 own bass boom echoing around the inner city, Saturday is buzzing with yet more anticipation. Everyone seems to be wearing Idles T-Shirts, and the setting is ideal \u2013 the spacious Queens Square just off the dockside, trees billowing greenly in the warm breeze above and framing the stage.<\/p>\n![\"Idles:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Idles_Bristol_07--scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>These two shows are the only UK gigs that the band are doing this calendar year which adds spice to the proceedings and, while their tunes can get a bit, shall we say, samey at times, they have a passion, a directness, and a joie de vivre, that is admirable, and, live, engaging and exciting.<\/p>\n![\"Idles:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Idles_Bristol_08--scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>At one stage when Crawl seeps into Exeter, the stage is engulfed in old friends from the town where he grew up before he embraced Bristol as his home. Roy is dedicated to his girfriend who is \u201cup in the tower watching\u201d, apparently.<\/p>\n