I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 20, 2023] Idles

I didn’t known that Idles was going to play near me at all this year.  Turns out that Idles will be doing lots of Festivals this summer in the States, and they decided to throw in two headline shows in the middle.  And Philly was one of them.

I’ve seen them twice before–each time the venue getting larger (good for them).

This was at Franklin Music Hall and I don’t think it sold out, but it was close.  The crowd was crazy (although, I feel not quite as crazy as at previous shows).  The band has a newish album out which I haven’t listened to as much–it changes their formula somewhat.

But they still opened with “Colossus.”  A loud, slow, rumbling repeating bass note from Adam Devonshire shook the whole place.  And then Joe Talbot came out and started singing the slow, quiet introduction.  The lights flashed from red to white as the song built and when it hit the loud part–boom!

The Re:SET concerts have seen them playing roughly an hour, so I wasn’t sure how long they would play for us.  They did a solid hour and forty-five minutes, playing songs from all of their albums, and leaving out at least one classic.  I was genuinely surprised they didn’t play “I’m Scum” since they are still selling the T-shirt

Jon Beavis is a maniac on the drums–how did these drum head survive the pummeling?  Again, I could barely see him back there, but he was easily felt.

After the first song Joe left the stage for a minute and Mark Bowen said hiya Philly.  When Joe came back out he said, “is that your crowd talking dress you’re wearing?”  He said that Bowen has never addressed an audience before.  He amended that to, “and been understood.”

During the second or third song, Lee Kiernan (whose birthday it was–the crowd spontaneously broke into Happy Birthday) was crowd surfing while playing guitar.  Soon after Talbot got us in a chant of “fuck the king,” which was a little odd since most Americans probably don’t care about the King one way or the other.  But whatever.

The set was heavy on their earlier stuff in the beginning of the show.   I was surprised that “Mother” was so early in the set, but it was a great sing along.

The crowd was suitable wild, although I was apparently far enough from the scrum t not really get involved in it (which is good, but felt a little odd to not even really be aware of the pit).  There was one kid who kept bouncing up and down using my shoulder as a stabilizer, but aside from pogoing, our area was fairly static.

They had played “Car Crash” and “Crawl!” from the new album already when, after running through the great 1049 Gotho, they played a few new songs.  With a few very notable exceptions, the new album is more mellow than the previous ones.  Maybe not mellow, but slower, less intense.  Especially, “When the Lights Come On.”  It was something of a breather.

Although “The Wheel” picks things up and it was followed by the crowd pleasing “Television.”

They slowed things down again with the older song “A Hymn,” which runs for about six minutes.  And then it was off to the races with a powerful “War,” and the 30 second hardcore of “Wizz.”

Talbot took a moment to address the crowd and then looked ta the setlist (created by Bowen) and said, oh fuck.  It was Beachland Ballroom, a song where Joe actually sings.

This headed into the end of the show with a blistering “Never Fight a Man with a Perm.”  He had everyone crouch down and after slowly reciting the title, the crowd went nuts.

The last time I saw them both guitarists spent a lot of time in the crowd.  Bowen had not been out yet and I wasn’t sure if he was coming or not.  But during a ripping “Danny Nedelko” (in which some crowd surfer was so frenzied that he knocked over someone next to  me–and came back and apologized when the song was over) Bowen quickly ran over the hands of the crowd and crowd surfed back chanting the Nedelko lyrics.

They ended with Talbot explaining that the last song was an anti-fascist song.  “Rottweiler,” as always is a wild set ender with the band going crazy, the crowd going crazy and Talbot smashing drums.

It’s always a powerful set ender.

I enjoyed the show but I did have to wonder if I needed to see them again.  I think third time’s the charm for them.

And Markit Aneight recorded  the whole show

2023 Franklin Music Hall	2021 Fillmore Philly	2019 Union Transfer
Colossus ℑ	Colossus ℑ	Colossus ℑ
Car Crash ©	Mr. Motivator ⊄	Heel/Heal ß
Mr. Motivator ⊄	Grounds ⊄	Never Fight a Man With a Perm ℑ
Mother ß	Mother ß	I’m Scum ℑ
Samaritans ℑ	Anxiety ⊄	1049 Gotho ß
Grounds ⊄	1049 Gotho ß	Divide and Conquer ß
Divide and Conquer ß	Samaritans ℑ	Mother ß
Crawl! ©	Divide and Conquer ß	Faith in the City ß
1049 Gotho ß	War ⊄	Love Song ℑ (Snippets: “You’re the One That I Want” John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, “I Don’t Want to Wait” Paula Cole)
When the Lights Come On ©	Danny Nedelko ℑ	Date Night ß
The Wheel ©	Faith in the City ß	Television ℑ
Television ℑ	The Lover ⊄	Samaritans ℑ
A Hymn ⊄	I’m Scum ℑ	Benzocaine ß
War ⊄	Reigns ⊄	Cry to Me (Solomon Burke cover)
Wizz ©	Love Song ℑ (With a medley of love songs: End of the Road, The Bad Touch, My Heart Will Go On, All I Want for Xmas)	Danny Nedelko ℑ
The Beachland Ballroom ©	The Beachland Ballroom ©	Rottweiler ℑ (With snippet: “Streets of Philadelphia” Bruce Springsteen)
Never Fight a Man With a Perm ℑ	Never Fight a Man With a Perm ℑ
Meds ©	Rottweiler ℑ (with Gustaf on stage)
Danny Nedelko ℑ
Rottweiler ℑ

© = Crawler (2021)
⊄ = Uktra Mono (2020)
ℑ = Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018)
ß = Brutalism (2017)