Tuesday 12/05/09 Placebo @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London

In these uncertain times, people like to lean back on the things they can rely on. This might explain the truly gigantic crowd of alterative hair-styled individuals scrambling to get into a rammed Shepherds Bush Empire for the return of the Duracell bunnies of alt-rock, Placebo.

Yet they’ve been having some trouble themselves recently, with a variety of set backs. As such, the androgynous Adonis that is Brian Molko, sporting slicked back pony-tail hair à la the 1980s, seemed particularly pleased by the turnout as the band pounded through a few uneasy new numbers that included the title track to forthcoming album 'Battle For The Sun'.

Though the ever expanding back line of musicians (now including new drummer “half man, half ink” Steve Forrest) stayed glumly in the dark, they seemed more motivated as the set list swung into alternation between classics and new material. ‘Black Eyed’ was the to really give the band the ego boost they needed before flopping into the rather formulaic new track ‘Speaking in Tongues’.

An ambient moody-kind of night, the somber brilliance of ‘Follow the cops back home’ and a covertly introduced ‘Every me every you’ finally caused Molko to crack an ironic laugh with the introduction of another new song: “This is a song about a guy called Julien. It’s called ‘Julien’”. This arguably gave the crowd the best laugh of the night and the best of the new material.   

Continuing the alternation theme with ‘Special Needs’ and ‘Devil in the detail’ its clear that though some of these songs tonight are not Placebo’s finest they still speak to the angsty, vulnerable and the broken in a way that few other bands can or ever will. And for this, whatever they do, the fans will love them no matter what they release.

‘Meds’, ‘Special K’ and ‘Song To Say Goodbye’ lead a final tour de force before a double encore consisting of ‘Infra-Red’, ‘Bitter End’, a truly sensational synthy-cover of Nik Kershaw’s ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good?’ before a final dose in terms of ‘Taste In Men’.

In terms of performance Placebo have rarely been better, even if a smile from the rest of the band wouldn’t have hurt once in a while. As for the new material, it’s going to take some real time to grow. But that’s what I said about the last album too. Frequently criticised for their stagnation act, of changing by not changing at all, Placebo look like they’ll weather this one fine. And with a long summer of touring ahead of them they’re going to come out trumps.