Placebo at Blackpool

So long since I've blogged. Bad me.

Anyway, Placebo at the Empress Ballroom, Blackpool. I went with NM from the Monday Night Group, our P disliking Placebo. I like to think I'd have gone on my own otherwise, but probably I wouldn't have bothered. So thank you NM! It was great.

We got there just as the doors opened, but there was a huge slow-moving queue, so we wandered around for a bit and then went to a bar next to the Winter Gardens, which was playing Placebo amongst other things. It was fun watching everyone trail past the window, though it did make me feel a bit old (average Placebo fan maybe 20? tops?)

The support was a band called White Rose Movement, who had great hair. The music was OK, I mean nothing surprising, but it certainly worked in that setting and the crowd were all for them. Well, not quite all. There were a couple of lurikeen bainshees behind NM and I, screaming "SCRUBBERS! at the top of their tiny lungs and laughing hysterically all the way through the set. I felt like kicking them, but I was good, dear reader, I was good.

I abandoned my escort and battled my way towards the front for Placebo. Stupid soft-top trainers meant I couldn't risk the really rough areas. And there were plenty of those, so it was a bit hairy just staying upright and not getting my toes broken. Fun though! It's been years since I was in a crowd like that - rough, almost wild, but very good-natured with it. There was no aggression. Most everybody looked like the sort of people you wouldn't mind having a drink with; proving, I suppose, that Placebo attracts a certain kind of fan and they are not the type that spits on people.

Molko sweated and smoked, Stefan leapt about and waved his skinny self at us, and we went crazy.

They played a lot of songs from the new album, all of which stood up. 'Meds' was a terrific opener and 'Song to Say Goodbye' came over very well too. They didn't play 'Pierrot', boo hiss. They played some early tracks with slow arrangements, 36 Degrees worked particularly well, but I think that's a slightly odd choice versus playing some of the early slow songs (what I wouldn't have given for WYIN...) Running Up That Hill was a nice surprise. Couple of old ones played the right way really made the moshpit dangerous: Special K ('I don't like this song but I think you guys like it so...') and Nancy Boy.

I was exhausted afterwards and v. grateful to NM for driving me home where I could sluice the alien sweat from my body (and my own of course), grab some toast before waking P up getting into bed. Poor old P. Abandoned, and I forgot to tape Battlestar Galactica for him on Tuesday so he didn't even have anything to do.