I think that the problems here may have been due to the running order on the day they played. When they began their set on the Alternastage, Jay-Z was already performing on the main one so a large amount of people would have been there watching him. Then there's the selection of bands playing that Saturday. A look at the timetable for Saturday shows Editors sharing a stage with Kasabian (makes sense), but also Ellie Goulding (makes no sense whatsoever). So you have an eclectic lineup which will bring with it an equally eclectic group of fans. The disparity in the types of acts like Kiss, Jay-Z, Slash, Kate Nash and Cypress Hill etc means there is unlikely to be one unifying component that will bring everyone together. It's not the same as a festival like Werchter or Glastonbury where, more often than not, most of the crowd will show up for the headlining act. All of this blends together to create a low-level indifference that I would imagine can make even the biggest gig turn into, and feel like, something closer to a band rehearsal than a performance.
Perhaps for all the reasons above there's a certain mute quality about this crowd for most of the show. At the ends of the songs you usually hear prolonged screaming and applause, but here they sound remarkably subdued. That is, of course, unless they're yacking endlessly all the way through No Sound But the Wind. Worse still, it's calm enough in that collection of people that you can clearly hear a cheery individual shouting "Go fuck yourself, asshole" after Bones.
Open your arms and welcome people to your town?
Not today, it would seem. This doesn't mean it's a bad show. It just feels like the stage may have been built a little bit too high, as all the music coming from it seems to pass directly over the audience's head.
It would of course be tempting to draw attention to the fact that the mighty Rammstein were playing at the same festival, and we all know what happened when that band and Editors shared a bill at Maxidrom in 2016. Coincidence or spooky curse? Hmmmmmm. Enjoy the music ;)
FLAC Audio
01 ITLAOTE - download here
02 An End Has A Start - download here
03 Bones - download here
04 Bullets - download here
05 ERM=BD - download here
06 Blood - download here
07 Munich - download here
08 The Racing Rats - download here
09 Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors - download here
10 No Sound But The Wind - download here
11 Bricks And Mortar - download here
12 Papillon - download here
Everything in a zip - download here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
