Following a number one album in the UK with TANGK, Idles bring their manic and quite frankly insane energy to Manchester’s O2 Apollo this Friday, on a cold, damp and miserable day, frontman Joe Talbot still somehow finds a way to light up that crowd and have everyone in his control right in the palm of his hand.
As the lights begin to fade, the drums kick in, and all members take the stage one by one. The spine-tingling vocals of IDEA 01 and the silhouette of Talbot lit up this near-century-old building.
And then there they were in full glory with red lights pulsating their energy onto this crowd of nearly 5,000.
As the intro to Colossus, from the band’s 2018 album, begins, all hell breaks loose, beer flying everywhere, people soaring through the sea of fans, jackets, T-shirts, Hoodies, at one point randomly a wig, all being thrown around, it’s just pure pandemonium!
And all of this met to the sheer delight of Talbot, who gives off a grin and you can tell he is revelling in it.
In his first interaction of the night, Talbot stops the show for a brief minute and says he is moving the speakers closer to the crowd because he “loves being close to the people of Manchester”, shortly after he splits the crowd into two halves, each pluck of (step in) bassist Christopher Hargrave’s weapon sends a boom out into the crowd, and you can almost see the hair on the people brave enough to stand in the pits, shift with the power of it.
There is something oddly beautiful to Idles, if you only saw the crowd and did not hear the music, you would be expecting something Slayer-esque, but when you really listen closely, the songs are romantic and sombre, this is Talbot’s way of grieving and coming to terms with the struggles of his past, and the mix of punchy, raucous noise combined with the heartfelt and touching vocals, works perfectly.
The perfect example of this is Mother from the band’s debut album Brutalism, a song about the leader of this pack’s, mother. He dedicated it to the National Health Service, stating that “without them, I wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be here” to much applauding and cheer, and you can tell how much this means to him, to have such an intimate and private part of his life, turned into an artform and sung right back at him.
Throughout the entire night, there is not a single moment of doubt that this manc crowd are giving up, every smack on the drums, boom of the bass and razor-sharp guitar, seems to give adrenaline to the crowd.
As the ever-enigmatic punk leader holds the crowd in the palm of his hands once again stating how much he loves the city and people of Manchester, he begins to sing Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, and the mean guitar sting of Danny Nedelko kicks in, another mosh pit emerges, with guitarist Mark Bowen, being at the heart of it, with fans circling him like a pack of starving sharks.
And as the song, and the night, draws to a close, Talbot breaks out into Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You, then Oasis’ Live Forever, and finally Rottweiler, with all members of the band introducing each other, and bowing to the crowd before heading off, and the dreaded lights come on meaning it’s time to clear out.
Idles are quickly becoming one of the best live bands in the country, with two number one albums in the past 4 years, one can only imagine what’s next for the band and I for one will be keeping a close eye on them.
