Quarta-feira 14 Abr 2010, 20h:37

Well, believe it or not, but this was my first gig of 2010! Shocking, I know, but I fully intend to make up for lost time!

My newest gig buddy & I got to Brixton Academy about 8-ish, got in, got a drink & weaved our way down to as close as we could get to the front - only a few rows of heads separated us from the stage! :) But how is it that there were still taller people ahead of us??? My radical but frankly unworkable idea is that the shortest peeps should be allowed to go right at the front & the tallest peeps have to stand at the back so they don't block anyone's view - I know, I know, it'll never happen & it never could happen & its a ridiculous idea, so forget that, haha!

Anyway, we still had a pretty good view from where we were & we were there early enough to catch support band Fujiya & Miyagi. A great krautrock-esque band who fuse electronica with guitars & make a great sound. I have their album Lightbulbs & they started with my favourite song of theirs - the playful & just plain daft Knickerbocker & they went down very well with an appreciative crowd - always nice to see support bands getting a good reaction from a receptive crowd! :)

So after that, a little gap & time for a chat & then eventually the lights dimmed, the crowd cheered, moody lighting lit the stage & Editors strolled onstage & launched into the title track from their current album - In This Light & On This Evening. I just had a feeling they'd start with this song, if only for the line "in this light & on this evening, London's become the most beautiful thing I've seen" & it was a moody & beautiful opener.

Now before I go any further, a couple of apologies - I have no setlist & only the vaguest idea of the order of the songs, so this review could be all over the place, so if you were there & are reading this, my apologies for the scattergun approach to this review!

Editors did a very brave thing with their third album by ditching the guitars almost completely in favour of synths. This move may have served only to alienate quite a lot of the fans & while its true that tonight, most of the biggest cheers were reserved for the old favourites from the first two albums, the new songs were still warmly received.

So the big singles from the first two albums got the biggest cheers & the most pogoing around. Their melancholy music really does translate so well to the gig set-up & nowhere was this more apparent than Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, that was greeted like an old friend as the guitars screeched & peeps clapped along & danced. The Racing Rats was fast & frantic & rapturously received.

New track & probably the weirdest song on the new album Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool, saw the stage bathed in a deep red light as its strange, stabbing synths rang out around the Academy & the place burst into life in the urgent chorus with the words 'you', 'him' & 'her' flashing up on the screen at the moment Tom Smith sang them - an understated but curiously effective effect.

I was over the moon as the squalling guitars of Escape The Nest rang out - its my favourite Editors song & that repeated screaming guitar hook blazed a trail into every ear & down every spine in the place & it was simply spectacular!! Lovely new album track Bricks & Mortar was simply gorgeous & the repeated hopeful & lovely line at the end - "I hope life is good for you", caused a ripple of goosebumps down my spine.

A brief pause, before the encore accompanied by the usual slow hand-clapping that got faster & faster & the foot stamping & before long our patience was rewarded. Tom Smith came back onstage & played a beautiful song on a piano, alone in a lonely spotlight. After this, the rest of the band rejoined their frontman & tore into new album highlight Papillon that caused mass hand clapping & mad-crazy dancing & we were treated to a spectacular & unexpected visual effect - every time Tom Smith snarled the song's hookline "It kicks like a sleep twitch", there was a huge eruption of fire about 20 feet high - awesome! :D We were so close, we could feel the heat from the fire from where we were - it was simply brilliant & we were feeling a bit chilly anyway, haha!

They finished with their trademark set closer Fingers In The Factories that was huge, anthemic & everything a set-closer should be. Then halfway through the song a sudden & seemingly endless storm of red metallic ticker-tape erupted into the crowd & fluttered among us like a million tiny butterflies - it was a great & celebratory way to end a great gig & we were still finding bits of that ticker tape as we found our way back to Brixton tube station!

So, a spectacular gig from a consistently awesome British band. Tiny quibble - no Open Your Arms, no All Sparks, no Camera - but you can't complain really - Editors delivered the goods in style, effortlessly mixing old guitar heavy favourites with new synthy songs. A glorious gig & I'm happy to be able to say that my newest gig buddy thoroughly enjoyed her first UK gig experience! :D

So thank you Editors, thank you to my friend for coming along with me & thank you to a great crowd (even the taller peeps who occasionally blocked our view & whose heads & hands seemed to appear in nearly every photo we tried to take!!) - a great evening & an extremely welcome reintroduction to the gigging scene - I'm NEVER gonna go that long between gigs ever again! :D