We’re at the midway point for the Piece Hall gigs this year and something a bit more noisy than some of this week’s guests such as Rick Astley and Tom Jones to finish the week off, tonight it’s the return to Halifax for Joe Talbot who previously appeared in Halifax next door in the Square Chapel. Last time it was in a talk with Alan McGee (who debuted the wonderful Stone on the same night), this time he brought his mates with him to party.
Halifax was in full swing by mid afternoon, it’s already a great place for food and drinks but then the crowds descend for the evening’s entertainment and it’s pretty much standing room only everywhere you go. There’s been a lot of moaning about the 8pm curfew into the Piece Hall by some traders but they’re still getting stacked out everywhere, they’d certainly miss the takings if Cuffe & Taylor pulled out of putting gigs on in the historic building that’s for sure!
Angelica Garcia
This American Latino has been getting a lot of backing since she signed to Partisan Records, not to be confused with the Mexican singer with the same name. The performance is, well, different… With echoes of Kate Bush and Madonna in her dancing, grinding and pulsing and her tribal style of music its not something you might have suspected of seeing sharing a stage with IDLES but it was still great, different but great.
Sprints
This however is exactly something you would expect and indeed they have been sharing several stages lately together. I caught them earlier this year at Bearded Theory where they got massively bumped up to the main stage because the much smaller but beautiful Woodlands stage was still waterlogged after the torrential rain that trashed the site like the weather has done at many festivals this summer.
With the aforementioned Curfew there was a very good sized crowd to greet Karla and the boys and they didn’t waste any time jumping straight in with Ticking and Heavy, the starters off their debut album Letter To Myself. The set included a few more from the album along with a few older fan favourites such as I’m In A Band that gets the 1st Crowd Surfer of the night up and away, and by the time the set was over they were playing to a pretty much full Piece Hall however I don’t think they manage to connect well over the set as plenty were chatting away by the end unfortunately.
IDLES
The success of IDLES has been a tale all to itself with the rapid growth after the release of Joy as an Act of Resistance, straining relationships both within the band and with family for Joe but thankfully things worked out and earlier this year TANGK broke free. What was delivered was something of a reset, an IDLES 2.0 if you would, showing a softer side to the world of which the albums opener IDEA 01 kicks off their set tonight once the band inc Bobo dressed in a resplendent crimson/purple dress (thankfully complete with shorts underneath).
As they started working the crowd Joe entered doing his customary prowling and hugging / fist bumping with the stages side folk, the unknown heroes who make sure the band deliver and fix and swap anything needed during the performance. Colossus then landed the first punch to the crowd but it was Gift Horse that fully connected when Joe spilt the crowd left and right, this was the moment when beer and bodies went flying, the folk who weren’t quite prepared for what an IDLES pit is like were trying to make an exodus to safety to the back but with a pit going as far back as the sound desk it was a daunting task and Mr Motivator following wasn’t helping their cause.
Mother certainly didn’t either, come to think of it was about the only time the action in the pit wasn’t absolute chaos for the 1st time the band were deliberately firing up the crowd was Car Crash, not that is was much of a respite as I’m Scum followed, dedicated to the 15 years of Tory Government which brought a FUCK THE TORIES chant from the crowd. The Wheel, regardless of its power finally gave the crowd a chance to catch their breath which was written about his mum and urged people to talk as it may not only save your life but theirs too.
Not being one of their most known songs regardless of its relentlessness it slowed all but the very dedicated down the front. Gratitude managed to keep the crowd simmering with its brooding darkness as does When The Light Comes On. Benzocaine, dedicated to shit drugs got a great reception and Joe was in the crowd for the 1st time urging the pit to spin and get momentum going again which the crowd duly responded to closely followed by Bobo jumping in, yet again still playing guitar whilst surfing across the crowd, it was at this point I saw that thankfully he was wearing the aforementioned shorts…
POP POP POP brought the pulse down slightly only for a short while as Divide And Conquer, a hate song about the Coalition Govt and it was Crazy Town once again especially as we were hit immediately after with Samaritans. The Beachland Ballroom finally brought the crowd to a halt and instant sing along at which point light rain once again made an appearance not that folk were bothered, they were glad of the cooling down!
The rest was very short lived as Never Fight A Man With A Perm set everybody off again. Joe asked Yorkshire shall we fucking dance and they didn’t need asking twice as Dancer got as big a reception as some of the classics which appeared to surprise Joe as He asked for the house likes up and it was time for the shit song sing along and this time it was Dirty Dancing ‘Time Of My Life’. Danny (the fucking) Nedelko started the closing of tonight with Bobo on top of the crowd once again, Encores aren’t something IDLES tend to conform to and the night is wrapped up somewhat traditionally with the anti fascist track Rottweiler and with a Yorkshire I fucking love you they delivered a glorious nine minutes of it!
It’s always a balance for bands as they grow older and bigger and its no different to IDLES, a large part of me misses the punk side of it where it was raw, really raw, songs not particularly well played or sung but as the band have clearly had a lot more practice things are more polished these days and with much more material so I guess the hour long deafening, sweaty manic assault on all senses is a thing of the past, are they worse for it? Depends on when you discovered them and saw them live. It’s still a fucking great night but a part of me missed the original experience.
Would it stop me seeing them again? No fucking way, they haven’t turned into fucking Coldplay!…
PHOTO CREDIT – HELS MILLINGTON
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