Take one moderately sized but extremely vocal and passionate crowd, place in a delightfully ramshackle little venue that's roughly the equivalent of The Cluny's gig room (and similarly, has no barrier to speak of), add one Scottish band on fine form (and a pretty darn impressive support) and season with a setlist bristling with intensity. Viola, you have Idlewild's performance at the Plymouth Hippo.
Man, that was tremendous. I probably say this every time, but God, Idlewild are amazing. These guys just continue to blow me away, show after show after show. It's so refreshing to see a band willing to plumb the depths of their back catalogue, altering their sets dramatically night after night, not just replacing one or two but changing over half and mixing everything around. It makes everything fantastically unpredictable and is a great benefit for the insane buggers like myself who take it upon themselves to follow 'em around the bloody country.
And God, what a set. I'd be hard pressed to ask for much better, to be honest. Lots of '100 Broken Windows', many I haven't seen in a while... check this monster out:
Younger Than America
Readers and Writers
You Held The World In Your Arms
Listen To What You've Got
Tell Me Ten Words
Roseability
Too Long Awake
Love Steals Us From Loneliness
The Night Will Bring You Back To Life
A Modern Way of Letting Go
Let Me Sleep (Next To The Mirror)
Live In A Hiding Place
City Hall
Post-Electric
The Bronze Medal
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Everyone Says You're So Fragile
Blame It On The Obvious Ways
Actually It's Darkness
In Remote Part (with Scottish Fiction at the end!)
I think I nearly gave myself a hernia during 'Fragile' and probably splurged everywhere upon hearing the opening bars of 'Let Me Sleep'. The whole set is just superbly structured too; there's a very nice ebb and flow to it, but it's predominantly heavy. Which, obviously, is awesome.
So, statistically:
Post-Electric Blues: 5
Make Another World: 0 (bit of a shame that, but I didn't notice until well after the end of the gig... which says a lot about a. how good the set was and b. the strength of Idlewild's output)
Warnings/Promises: 3
The Remote Part: 5
100 Broken Windows: 5
Hope Is Important: 1
Captain EP: 0
Got plenty photos (at the front of the stage, on Rod's side); will share those when I get a chance. Oh, and I had a nice chat with Colin at the end and randomly shook Rod's hand. Which was nice.
Back in the hotel now... to bed, in order to waken of the morrow for the first part of my crazy journey home. Yay for replacement bus services!
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