And then they were back.
The initial impression of the show, having watched Idles and Franz Ferdinand prior to this, was that the heat there was pretty oppressive. The sight of the festival staff squeezing out sponges into the hands of the audience to keep them cool... yikes! Not my scene at all. The shade is not overrated, people.
This was an impressive return to wider public view from the wilderness for Editors. I say "wider" public view because they did a sold-out warm up gig in Roubaix this week, but this was the first time back on a larger stage. Having been away for two years, but with Tom and Nic having been in motion for the There is Nothing in the Dark tour, you'd think they never actually left on this evidence. But they did, and they brought back two new songs for the show. Call it In you've definitely heard, The Rush you probably haven't. Both tracks are upbeat but you get the feeling that their pop veneer is hiding something a little darker. This, is not a problem for me at all.
Along with new material there are new versions of old favourites. The challenge of finding tasks for six people to occupy themselves with while playing, has resulted in some novel sonic reshaping. Sugar finishes slightly differently, and All the Kings is almost a brand new song. The Phone Book is no longer the only song Ed plays with brushes, and has added some muscle to its delicate frame. I can only imagine how a song like Nothing would sound now with that many personnel attacking it on stage. Their past isn't being left behind, it's evolving with them as they go.
I wonder if the ripped canvas behind them is in any way connected with the new album's artwork?
There's a very intense moment at the end of Papillon where Tom is just staring out into the crowd, seemingly in a trance-like state. Just looking, probably taking it all in that all these people are really enjoying his band's music. That, or he was a part of what I'm sure what was a collective mild case of band dehydration, and they're all watching giant pink elephants floating above the audience. This was not quite on par with when Editors played the cauldron that was Summersonic Japan in 2007, but hot nonetheless.
I'm paraphrasing here but Justin said in an interview recently that, as a group, there's always a fear that nobody will be interested in you coming back once you've been away. This show dispelled that pretty convincingly.
Watch out for Mr Rahi Rezvani stalking the band at various intervals, wearing a coat that must surely have caused him to perspire the equivalent of a small lake over the course of Editors' one hour set.
Enjoy the music ;)
Live Stream Broadcast Setlist
Racing Rats
Munich
Call It In
Sugar
A Ton of Love
Karma Climb
An And Has a Start
The Rush
Smokers
The Phone Book
All the Kings
Papillon
Full Set Streaming (Official 3Voor12)
MP3s
Racing Rats - download here
Munich - download here
Call It In - download here
Sugar - download here
A Ton of Love- download here
Karma Climb - download here
An And Has a Start - download here
The Rush - download here
Smokers - download here
The Phone Book - download here
All the Kings - download here
Papillon - download here
All in a Zip - download here
Bonus Materials
Here's a short film containing behind the scenes footage shot by Justin at Roubaix and Pinkpop respectively.
Backstage Interview with Tom and Justin
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x
