Like a fine wine, some bands get better with age and like a cheap tin, others go flat and expire. As I entered the Palais Theatre to see goth icons Placebo, amidst a sea of jet black hair and finer nails part of me thought for a moment that they might have fallen into the latter category.
They’ve certainly moved into a more mature space, as has their audience. Playing a one and a half hour set at a seated show at the Palais Theatre to a respectful and mostly sober crowd of adoring fans is a far cry from strumming out a couple in a back alley dive to a handful of heroin-chic goths too cooked to know their arse from their elbow. It’s certainly a different Placebo in a different time.
I was particularly taken with the epicness of the show. I didn’t remember them producing such a large and loud sound and I certainly wasn’t anticipating it. Classics like Meds and Every You, Every Me take on a whole new identity when their brought into that atmosphere and played in that nature with so much aggression and ferocity. Though the songs were still unmistakably Placebo, due mostly of course to Brian Molkos familiar whine, they just seemed grander, purpose built for large scale performances in arenas and festival main-stages. Though I didn’t expect it, it didn’t upset me and it certainly resonated with the crowd.
It was that aggression coupled with the industrial electronic drum tracks that laid under the entire set that showed me that Placebo aren’t a band that remained stagnant, they’ve adapted to their surroundings and have toyed with their sound to appeal to their audience. Their newer material wasn’t really my cup of tea. I’m not one for epic neo-goth industrial pop rock, I find it to be a little too obvious, but I was happy to endure what I perceived to be lulls in the show for the peaks which were a grand enough pay off. Though they haven’t really been in my thoughts of late, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been producing material that appeals to those they target. Placebo, for all their goth androgynous quirks and gimmicks are one of the most influential acts of the last couple of decades. I can’t deny Placebo their place in rock’n’ roll history – they’ve earned it.
BY KEATS MULLIGAN
Photos by Daniel Smith
Loved: The classics.
Hated: The fact I couldn’t take my beer to my seat.
Drank: Nothing while I was at my seat.
