Lennon and McCartney, Plant and Page, Sonny and Cher, Morrisey and Marr, Gallagher and Gallagher, and now Baker and Levy. Two minds melding and creating together to bring a joint account of the mighty IDLES at the Brighton Centre. Decide for yourself whether this is a bold, genre redefining moment in the history of gig reviews or just a string of poorly strung together ramblings of two tired men.
So, IDLES touring their latest album Tangk, Sunday night and The Brighton Centre – one of these things we love, the other two not so much. The Sunday night gig is always going to be a tough one. The crowd are slightly restrained as the prospect of going to work on a mini hangover and lost hours of sleep is a terrible and foreboding way to kick off the festive season. Despite being well renowned for their own imperious energy levels, IDLES themselves are also slightly subdued this evening, most likely on the back of a mega UK tour. By all accounts they’d played an absolute barnstormer at Ally Pally the night before and so expectation was high.
Let it be said however that this is a band with an impressive back catalogue of boot-stomping euphoric post punk, so it takes very little from the boys from Bristol to get the job done and get a tentative crowd pumped up. A special shout out to the one man mosh pit performing right in front of us. We doff our night caps to you good sir – some say he’s still at the Brighton Centre now, feeling those tunes. He probably would fight a man with a perm and win.
The gig started sooooo well. IDEA 01 easing us in and building up for the back-to-back beauties of Colossus and Gift Horse. Already we’re reminded of the exceptional catalogue of tunes that the band has and we were loving every minute. Their latest album TANGK is well received with the likes of, POP POP POP and Dancer sending the Brighton crowd into a frenzy. A personal favourite Jungle sounds excellent live and defines the real shift in the band’s sonic ambitions on their latest record.
The set list also includes some of the old classics like Mother and 1049 Gotho while crowd pleasers Mr. Motivator, The Beachland Ballroom and Danny Nedelko will forever sound fantastic any day of the week even on a wet and windy seafront Sunday night.
Special mention as well to support act Willie J. Healey, after a slightly chaotic start with his band, rolls into a fantastic set of ramshackle soulful songs including off Bunny, one of the favourites from last year.
The middish part of the set was still great and beautiful and mighty – all things IDLES– but it also lacked a little energy and volatility and the gig tipped down a bit. We love the new songs, we love the older ones but it was at this point of the set that we felt that we were at a Sunday night gig after a long tour. Bless the boys – for our money one of the best bands on the planet at the minute and who are exceptional live, especially joined by the wonderfully wailing saxophone of Colin Webster – but once the initial outpouring of early energy was spent, there was an understandable tiredness about the band. Guitarist Mark Bowen wasn’t his usual self and remained uncharacteristically subdued for much of the night. They of course delivered but this felt like IDLES cruising slightly and when we got to the encore we surprised ourselves to feeling a little teddy tired eyes – not a usual reaction to an IDLES event. ‘Has anyone ever had their head kicked in?’ Asked Joe Talbot before launching into the incendiary and pounding Never Fight a Man with a Perm… Teddy tired eyes no more.
The encore itself, a last burst of electricity with the above mentioned Dancer, Danny Nedelko and fan favourite Rottweiler ends the night on a real high with Bowen heading into the crowd for a customary finale – chanting aloft with a mic cable that was long enough to carry a trans-Atlantic message.
IDLES can divide people not just on their sound and music but also the authenticity of their principles. Questions constantly flurry on message boards about their genuineness and “gesture politics”. For the record (not that it matters to those keyboard warrior Reddit users) anyone who can speak openly during a set about addiction, mental health, encourage kindness and self love and of course demanding a ceasefire feels incredibly sincere and measured and real and forever refreshing. There was even a lovely moment before the gig seeing bass guitarist Adam Devonshire standing in the foyer talking to a long line of patient fans all about Gig Buddies, a volunteer group who accompany solo gig goers who, for whatever personal reason, would like someone to go with them to enjoy music.
While the gig wasn’t IDLES at their absolute best, the fact remains that IDLES on a strong 80% night is still good enough to smash most other bands out of the park.
