On opening night of their sold-out, three-night residency at Camden’s Electric Ballroom, IDLES were stirring, electrifying, helplessly fun and totally life-affirming. In a set that spanned both albums with equal intensity, the punk allies put on a performance that reestablished their currency not only as Britain’s best band, but as a political movement motivated by joy and respect.
Hitting the stage to the moving opening notes of ‘Collossus’, IDLES launched into a transporting set that, as is the band’s formula, wove in messages of glee and defiance with ferocious guitar rock and melodic punk - to exalted results.
The atmosphere was one of exhilarated thrill, as the band embarked on the biggest shows of their careers so far. Berserk and sonorous, Joe, Adam, Bowen, Lee and Beavis discharged all of their emotional energy into a cataclysmic explosion of gleeful dancing and infectious, quicktime punk.
Celebratory immigrant anthem ‘Danny Nedelko’ hits a particular high note for the crowd, as the perennially manic guitarist Bowen stands atop their raised hands for the middle eight, while ‘Television’ also proves a fan favourite in the live space. Still, preference for certain tracks are near-imperceptible thanks to the catchy, joyful brilliance of each and every IDLES song. For ‘Well Done’, audience-member Dan performs the opening verse, while two women take up guitars for ‘Exeter.’
While drummer Beavis and bassist Adam keep throbbing, rhythmic time at the rear, frontman Joe and guitarists Lee and Bowen prance from foot to foot through seventeen anthems, each one instrumentally infectious, and, with the addition of lyric and energy, vital.
As usual, the real euphoria of IDLES came through in their message, intent and attitude. Acceptance and an intersectional, loving rhetoric punctuate the music, with Joe’s earnest adages stirring more enthusiasm in the pit than detached or aggressive remarks typical of rock bands ever could.
Contrary to The Sleaford Mod’s Take, this band are perfectly authentic. Yes, IDLES are a band of white men performing to a crowd of mainly middle class, white men, but in a climate of toxic masculinity, there can be no harm in such allyship. There is no attempt to appropriate the messages that women and people of colour have been supplying for decades; IDLES merely re-deliver those messages simply, bolstering them for their audience and packaging social politics in catchy, dizzying punk.
The success of IDLES - in record sales, on stage and through their merchandise - could only have been built upon a sincere community burst from a wellspring of authenticity and empathy. And that’s why when Joe puts it to the crowd “Long Live the European Union”, “I am a feminist” and “Don’t read The Sun or The Daily Mail; it will give you cancer”, his words are greeted by elation.
Live, IDLES are an orgy of euphoria and glee, held fast by a legitimate, unifying heart of protest, resistance and silly dancing. On their first night at Electric Ballroom, they reconfirm the position they surely hold as Britain’s most important and well-loved band.
IDLES played:
Colossus
Never Fight A Man With A Perm
Mother
Faith In The City
I’m Scum
GREAT
Heel/Heal
Danny Nedelko
Divide & Conquer
1049 Gotho
Love Song
Benzocaine
Samaritans
Television
Exeter
Well Done
Rottweiler
