IDLES are unleashed on Glasgow’s OVO Hydro as their raw and urgent anti-fascism message dances alongside a big, energetic love, and with one of their favourite chants ringing out loud and clear, a right royal pair of big ears must be in need of a hose down tonight.
Of course, it’s human rights and mental well-being that fuels the very battered heart of the band, and throughout the night they make their stance clear on many issues, changing up the lyrics on a number of tracks to reinforce their support for Palestine.
Frontman Joe Talbot engages with the crowd at every opportunity, and although he doesn’t mince his words, there’s plenty good humour too, his revelation about being conceived in Glasgow delighting the crowd, even though he was born in Wales. Unlucky Joe. Unlucky. Skipping from fragile to agile, he’s bent over one moment then frantically high kneeing it the next… that’s when he’s not stamping his foot so hard I wonder if an outbreak of miniature tories have infested the stage. But there’s conviction in every move, his heart right there on his tattooed sleeve with a pain and appreciation you can almost taste in every spit, sneer and nuance of his performance.
The band ease us in gently with Idea01, opening track from latest release TANGK before the looming assault of 2018’s Colossus really kicks things off. With a devious glint in his eyes, Talbot orders the audience to split into two for a wall of death as the explosive second half of the number blasts off, guitarist Lee Kiernan plunging into the chaos, the first of many visits (with guitarist Mark Bowen getting up close and personal with the fans later too). It’s a pity the seated tickets don’t come with a side of bionic eyes as it really does feel like I’m miles away and there are no big screens to catch the gristly details tonight. But although IDLES gigs are all about participation, taking a back seat does give me an aerial view of the ensuing carnage, and although at one point I think a toddler is being flung about the crowd, when it lands on the stage I’m relieved to discover it’s in fact a t-shirt. Oh, and as an added bonus, being stuck up here removes any chance of a close-encounter with a sweaty back cleavage. Result!
At the band’s TANGK launch event in London in February we managed to meet each band member very briefly, and what came across was their love for Glasgow, bassist Adam Devonshire telling us that he’d happily set up home in the city while drummer Jon Beavis admitted that they’d have loved to have returned to the city’s Barrowlands for this tour, but five or so nights on the trot was never going to fit in with their touring schedule. With this in mind the Hydro option became a no brainer, and tonight it feels like there’s no where else Talbot would rather be as he tells us his girlfriend is here after being told it was “best place on earth to play a show”, before launching into Roy, the TANGK track he wrote for her.
Tonight’s set covers all bases, from savage favourites like Mr Motivator, Never Fight A Man With A Perm (well, tonight a Scottish passport) and I’m Scum, to fresh, tangy picks such as the muted joy-seeking trip hop of Pop Pop Pop and rampaging Gift Horse. Their performance is both entertaining and disconcerting all at once, their corrosive collision course including the eerily spacious Car Crash from 2021’s Crawler, Talbot later on his knees, snarling through the pain and elation of the album’s mani-fucking-fique Crawl.
But as much as I love the searing chaos so synonymous with IDLES, they’re not afraid to lower the pace, exposing a vulnerability in Talbot’s vocal which can only come from living through pain, a subject he’s not afraid to broach. Talking of his mother’s death and his own addiction, he confesses that the band and their fans have saved his life many times over. Tonight this shines through in the tribal, corrosive beats of The Wheel and gentle sway of The Beachland Ballroom, uniting the crowd in voice before Talbot’s desperate howls of ‘damage’ pervade every corner of the Hydro. We’re also intoxicated by the brooding brilliance of When The Lights Come On, its melancholic, late night groove pulsing beneath shifts in consciousness as the mood swings from bleak to fearless and back, the crowd chanting ‘feels like I’m coming home’ like they really are. Whenever I hear this song I picture my son wandering the streets in the middle of the night, though I reckon given the chance he’d probably take the dim sum over fighting that pain in the arse cousin. Sublime.
Of course no IDLES gig is complete without Danny Nedelko, another track from 2018’s Joy As An Act Of Resistance, their exhilarating anthem for the immigrants who built our country stirring up a storm in the mosh pit as a vortex of crushing riffs smash through the walls of the Hydro. Bowen’s now standing on top of some fans, like you do, eventually staggering back on stage before joining Talbot for a heartwarming duet of Mariah Carey’s All I want For Christmas is You. Bless.
Concluding the with the sweet whirrs of Rottweiler, it’s been a monumental night, a joint effort between both the band and fans, the atmosphere unthreatening and buoyant throughout. Bowen struts the stage in his element, name checking the band including the man who “may or may not be Scottish”. With tonight’s frock a mesh number providing all the stretch a straddling exhibitionist can ever desire, he even breaks into some comedy Say What You Want byTexas before ending the night with a deadly serious request. Ceasefire now.
Words: Shirley Mack @musingsbymarie
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography