– THE APOLLO THEATRE, MANCHESTER –
I used to like Editors. That is, I did until last night when they left me cold. In their defence, they weren’t awful, they were merely average.
They start with a slow number from their third album ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ before opting for their more familiar, upbeat material. Each time they got the crowd going with their better tracks, they needlessly segued into less jaunty stuff, and completely destroying any momentum they’d built up.
Of course, for diehard fans, the Birmingham-based quartet can do no wrong, but there is significantly less head nodding and foot tapping from the middle of the room backwards.
To make matters worse, my consort for the evening had her camera confiscated by security. Apparently, the band had decreed that even those with a special photo pass weren’t allowed to take more than 3 snaps.
On a brighter note, the visual effects were captivating at times, but still when I see a band live I want them to do two things. One, give me more than the album: more va-va-voom, more energy, more pizazz. Two, I want the show to be good enough to enhance the album when I listen to it again. Editors certainly didn’t achieve the former, and made me question whether the fault is mine – maybe I’m just not a big enough fan in the first place. However, ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ somehow sounds even better now, don’t ask me how, but it does.
Perhaps I’m just missing part of their appeal, famously dark and brooding lyrics given punch and verve by four doubtless excellent musicians.
