Please note, this is the video that was already posted by WMFESTS 2 on YouTube but it has some issues with the sound being out of sync. The problems are best appreciated if you watch that video and check out the count in by Ed to Sugar, where you can see that his drumming is just slightly behind what you're hearing. I replaced the audio and the corrected version is now Archived here for future reference and future fans, as I know new people are finding the group every week.
Less than 24 hours prior to this show, Editors may have had one of the best shows of their gigging lives at Best Kept Secret. Everything that needed to be in place was there; an enthusiastic crowd and a band willing to take the energy given and use it to deliver music with total passion and conviction. A symbiotic relationship that produced a truly memorable occasion. Then it was on to Russia to perform at Maxidrom.
There's a scene in the movie The Blues Brothers where the band, who perform soul and R+B tracks, end up playing a set in a country and western bar called Bob's Country Bunker. Predictably, the audience don't react well to this style of music as it's most definitely not what they're used to hearing. They play behind a chicken wire fence as the crowd throw bottles and glasses at them in disgust.
Editors at Maxidrom isn't quite that, but the underlying sentiment is still the same. The majority of the audience were there to see metal/rock bands playing metal/rock music and so subversive, introspective pop that's often played with synths (oh the horror!) was always going to be a hard sell. Unlike the Blues Brothers at Bob's Country Bunker they're not throwing things, but the crowd here just has an air of bewildered indifference about them throughout this set. To be fair, there's a clash between styles and expectations here which mean that Editors are a little out of place at this gig, but there's one very important fact to take into consideration.
There were Editors fans in that crowd.
The fact that the band don't play regularly in that country means that there's been few occasions to see them. This time around they got a show at Maxidrom and in the absence of a regular tour, or even some club dates here and there, if you're a Russian Editors fan then you take what you can get. I know for sure that groups of fans have been planning trips to Maxidrom for weeks, and expressing the same kind of giddy excitement that we all feel whenever they're playing in our locale. If you look in the crowd during some of the footage, particularly Smokers, you can see there are people singing along who know every word. So although the majority may not have been into what they saw and heard, there were people in that crowd who were there specifically to see Editors and for whom this gig meant an awful lot.
From the band's perspective I would imagine this was a sobering reminder of their distant past, when they would be presented with a venue of people with only one thought on their minds:
"Impress us"
If every night was as astonishing as Best Kept Secret, if that was the standard experience at every show then I suspect it would get old really quickly. Plus, I guarantee that someone in that crowd had their musical mind opened up at Maxidrom because Editors made the trip and played their music. As a musician, they are the people you're performing to and hoping to affect. Enjoy the music, even if it's a little awkward at times ;)
Sugar
Smokers
Life is a Fear
Racing Rats
Forgiveness
Munich -
ERM=BD
Ocean of Night
A Ton of Love
Papillon
Marching Orders
stream it here or download here
This is a short greetings video that Mr Smith recorded for the show a little while before they played. If only he knew....
stream it here
stream it here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
