IDLES
Hollywood Palladium
Tuesday, May 14th, 2023
Photos and review by ALYSON CAMUS
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – For their “Love is the Fing” tour, rock heroes IDLES was back in town for two sold-out shows at the Hollywood Palladium, a real testimony of Los Angelinos’ love for the Bristol band.
It was a two-hour punk rock performance, and I had the chance to attend their second show: No less than 25 songs off their five albums, (2017’s Brutalism, 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance, 2020’s Ultra Mono, 2021’s Crawler, and Tangk just released this year) delivered with their legendary visceral intensity. There was plenty of good humor mixed with continuous chaos on stage but especially in the middle of the crowd.
Thanks to Joe Casey’s powerful baritone, Detroit post-punks Protomartyr opened the night with a rather slow and somber tone. His everyman looks fully contrasted with the monotonous vibe of the songs which accelerated at times. He spat and yelled his lyrics, cutting through the throbbing post-punk soundscape of guitars and drums, just like a powerful light cuts the fog.
The connection between IDLES and its audience is one of the most powerful you can witness, probably because of their brutal message, always delivered with great conviction and a formidable passion. Joe Talbot, a frontman who has the charisma and the theatricality of a punk rock star, shouts his lyrics in a monotonous but authoritarian tone and gives plenty of political and loving rants between songs. Besides his lyrics, which were on everyone’s lips, he is never short of sharing his proud opinions and the crowd always cheers up in response.
Just after the slow melancholic “IDEA 01,” they launched the night into the stratosphere with the meditative-turned-violent “Colossus,” a track off their “Joy as an Act of Resistance” album. The song soon exploded into a fist-pumping rage with wailing guitars as Talbot repeated the cathartic mantra “Goes and it goes and it goes.” “I’m like Stone Cold Steve Austin/I put homophobes in coffins/I’m like Evel Knievel/I break bones for my people,” he continued with raging outbursts followed by the crowd.
“Are you ready to collide? Are you ready for love? Viva Palestina!” he screamed just before the more uplifting and joyful “Gift Horse,” an anti-monarchist song with the line “Fuck the king, He ain’t the king, she’s the king.” There were many pro-Palestinian declarations during the night (even a demand for a cease-fire). If it’s now fashionable to side up with this side of the Middle East conflict, it’s still ironic to take the defense of a very oppressive regime (especially to women whom IDLES champion so much in their songs) while calling the English monarchy oppressive.
Themes of hypermasculinity, parenthood, violence, trauma privileges, death, love, addiction, classes, and shallowness of modern living are all over the songs, while Talbot himself looks like an embodiment of hypermasculinity with his visceral delivery and commanding but froggy voice. In full contrast, the rest of the band (Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan on guitars, Adam Devonshire on bass, and Jon Beavis on drums) is rather quiet but restless, as Mark Bowen’s hot purple doll dress swirled around him at each one of his moves.
With socially and politically charged lyrics, and songs dropping more pop culture names faster than you can figure out, they went through materials from all their albums, with Talbot barking like a loving dog and walking at the sound of the pounding drums. Loyal to the human cause, IDLES always gives a voice to the underdogs and the working class, “My mother worked seventeen hours seven days a week,” he yelled during “Mother” with a graveling voice. Toward the end of the show, he also dedicated their famous ode to immigration, “Danny Nedelko,” “to the bravery and hard work of the immigrants that came to your country. This is a song for the celebration of hard work and the bravery of the people who came to our land started a new life and made our country are better place!”
Without resting a bit between songs, they gave us “Car Crash,” a sinister song wordier than a rap song, then the beloved “I’m Scum,” with its furious anti-establishment lines: “I don’t care about the next James Bond/ He kills for country, queen, and God.” “Los Angeles, get low! Stay low, stay fucking low” Talbot told the audience, while everyone kneeled at his command. “Fuck the queen! Fuck the king!” he made the crowd scream in unison as if dismantling the UK monarchy mattered to a US audience. The moshers and the crowd surfers were raging and IDLES must be one of the only bands that can make everyone dance while singing about the sadness of the human condition: “My friend is so depressed/He wishes he was dead,” Talbot jubilated during “1049 Gotho.”
He also shared personal feelings before “Benzocaine: “This song is about me losing…I thought she was the love of my life at the time, she’s a very great human being but I lost her because of drugs and my piece of shittery… it was the biggest best lesson I’ve learned.” There was no better way to unite the crowd.
“Samaritans” was dedicated to the opening band Protomartyrs, and as they were browsing through their now large catalog and less familiar songs, the numbers which received the warmest receptions were songs from their older albums such as “Ultra Mono” and “Joy as an Act of Resistance.” However,” Crawl” was a riot, and crowd surfers surged with a vengeance during “I’m alright! I’m alright!/I’m feeling mani-fucking-fique.” “The Beachland Ballroom” sounded like a poignant ballad and an unexpected break during a high-energy show, but soon they were back with their boots stomping on the ground with the explosive and funny “Never Fight a Man with a Perm.” Thankfully, the band celebrated their new record release with older classics.
“Should we dance?” Talbot asked us. If the first rows moshed as hard as they could, they also danced, and everyone took care of everyone, in an unbreakable spirit of unity, and without any aggression. The movements of the crowd were a pleasure to witness, especially during “Danny Nedelko’s” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah, ah, ah, ah,” followed by the “anti-fascist” “Rottweiler” after a raucous A Capella cover of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in a wtf moment. Mark Bowen chose the last song to jump in the crowd to surf the crowd with his purple dress.
The entire show was a cathartic charge rippling through the audience, a mix of pure positive energy and pure savagery raging on full cylinders, a danceable cacophony, a sweaty, blistering, and defiant punk rock demonstration, with intense sonic build-ups and tensions released in primal screams. But this mayhem would be easily forgotten without IDLES’ socially-charge lyrics, their colorful imagery, and the multitude of pop culture references. This is what makes them so unique and so loved.
Setlist
IDEA 01 (TANGK)
Colossus (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
Gift Horse (TANGK)
Mr. Motivator (Ultra Mono)
Mother (Brutalism)
Car Crash (CRAWLER)
I’m Scum (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
1049 Gotho (Brutalism)
Roy (TANGK)
The Wheel (CRAWLER)
Jungle (TANGK)
When the Lights Come On (CRAWLER)
Grounds (Ultra Mono)
Wizz (CRAWLER)
Benzocaine (Brutalism)
Gratitude (TANGK)
Samaritans (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
POP POP POP (TANGK)
Crawl! (CRAWLER)
The Beachland Ballroom (CRAWLER)
Never Fight a Man With a Perm (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
Dancer (TANGK)
Danny Nedelko (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey cover)
Rottweiler (Joy as an Act of Resistance)
