English rock giants Placebo visited Liverpool as part of their ‘Never Let Me Go’ tour. I went to check what form Brain Molko and Stefan Olsdal are in. The Concert took place in the oldest working Liverpool venue. Liverpool Olympia was opened in 1905 and since then welcomed number of boxing matches, concerts and other events in the city. Gates were opened at 7pm and fans started queuing to see the band. It is worth mentioning that Placebo had asked fans not to take pictures or videos at their concerts. They stated: ‘Dear Placebo fans, we would like to kindly ask you NOT to spend the concert filming or taking photos with your mobile phones. It makes Placebo’s performance so much more difficult. More difficult to connect with you and to communicate effectively the emotions of the songs. It is also disrespectful to your fellow concert-goers who want to watch the show, not the back of your phone.’ They also added: ‘Please be here and now, in the present and enjoy the moment.’
It’s nothing new as lots of artists have asked the same before. Prince, Jack White and Tool just to name a few are also artists who banned phones in the past. In the fully packed Olympia we first to see a band called Cruel Hearts Club. An all-female, rock trio formed of Edie (vocals, guitar), Gita Langley (vocals, guitar, bass, synths) and the drummer Gabi Woo. The ladies presented melodic songs with grungy guitars and catchy lyrics. All in the band are classically trained musicians and they are all happy mums who are proving in the industry jam-packed with men that a modern women can do what they want, have kids and express themselves musically at the same time and it’s not a problem. After today’s gig I am a fan of this band and I would encourage you to listen to them. Around 9 pm on stage appeared Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal accompanied by backing musicians. They started with ‘Forever Chemicals’ and ‘Beautiful James’ which are the first and second track on their latest album ‘Never Let Me Go’ and crowd started rocking. It’s great to see when new songs are well received by fans. As the third song they played ‘Scene of the Crime’ from ‘Loud Like Love’ album. After a short welcome with Liverpool audience we heard songs from latest album again. The first part of this concert is dominated with their newest songs. Am I surprised? Not at all! Clue is in the name of this tour. Next, we could hear some ‘old’ Placebo songs like ‘Bionic’ from the 1996 debut album which led to great reaction from fans. During later stages of this phenomenal concert, we could hear other songs which did not appeared in latest album and they were: ‘Too Many Friends’, ‘For What It’s Worth’, ‘Slave to the Wage’, ‘Song to Say Goodbye’ and with every next song, the crowd was wilder and wilder. Next tunes are ‘The Bitter End’ and ‘Infra-red’ which sadly also ended the main set. At encore we heard ‘Fix yourself’ and two more songs, both covers. ‘Shout’ which is originally performed by Tears for Fears and ‘Running Up That Hill’ fantastic version of Kate Bush immortal song which ended tonight’s musical treat. For many, a big surprise was lack of biggest Placebo hits including ‘Every me and every you’ but in overall Placebo are in great form and after almost 30 years of playing gigs worldwide they still rock and move crowds.
PLACEBO
CRUEL HEARTS CLUB
Photos + Review by Tom Adam | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!
