Placebo: You Don’t Care About Us (a review of Their Never Let Me Go tour date at Cardiff International Arena)
In a ten day span, I have been to two gigs at Cardiff International Arena, first Florence + The Machine and then Placebo. The anticipation for both was high. Florence because of the hype surrounding her live performances, and Placebo because I have been a fan for the lifespan of their career.
Despite their differences, they had one thing in common: Neither wanted you to film or photograph.
Florence Pugh waited a few songs to let you know, but then blathered on about us being “present" together in the moment. She chastised that we should have learned the value of shared experience since the pandemic forced us apart. Later, she employed humour, and told us we could turn to the people around us and shout, like a South Londoner, “put your fucking phone away”, aping the strength of an accent that the privately educated like her don’t have, but understand the value of when looking for compliance from the masses.
Placebo however, they were taking a stand. From the start.
Ticket holders were sent an email before the gig, we were told plainly that photographs and filming were unwanted because, it’s “more difficult to connect with you and to communicate effectively the emotions of the songs”.
Once at the venue, after the support act had left the stage, the entire backdrop while we waited was the same email. Stressing again, in capital letters, that phones were “NOT” wanted. They ended the message with a “peace” and then “namaste”, which literally means “bowing to you” in Sanskrit. Ironic.
This is when I could feel the needling begin, and I wanted to suppress it because I love this band. I saw them first on their Black Market Music tour, on 27th October 2000 (at Colston Hall, Bristol) I was 15, and was driven there and back by a friend’s mum, it was the first gig I went to unchaperoned and it was intense and incredible. I’ve listened to every album since, seen them in different parts of the country, and at different festivals too. But, maybe that first encounter should have made something clear to me; when they neither thanked the crowd nor came back on for an encore (even after 15 minutes of obvious confusion, when the cheering continued and house lights remained off)… Placebo do what they want.
But I’m not an eager teen anymore, I’m 38 now, and I don’t think it’s cool, or wish I could take my cue from them. When Brian Molko’s face appeared on the screens, another 5 minutes before he deigned to actually grace the stage, and he again reiterated that him and Stefan didn’t want phones out, I just felt flat out pissed off. Is this really it? This is the hill you want to die on? The only message worth sharing with us after over 20 years of performing? (Spoiler, it was.)
I want Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal to give a shit about the fans that afford them the opportunity to do what they do. And despite the email and backdrop, and floating head announcement, their setlist made it clear that they do not.
The first 5 tracks they played were all from the new album, track six was Bionic - the only track they played from their two most popular albums - and, in my view, potentially the worst of the 22. Tracks 7-11 were all also from the new album, then Too Many Friends from Loud Like Love and back again to the new album’s, Went Missing. Finally, we got a range of tracks from other albums:
For What it’s Worth - Battle for the Sun
Slave to the Wage - Black Market Music
Song to Say Goodbye - Meds
The Bitter End - Sleeping with Ghosts
Infra-Red - Meds
Then the most disappointing encore I have ever been subjected to:
Shout - Tears for Fears cover.
Fix Yourself - Never Let Me Go
Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush cover.
Placebo have a back catalogue of 7 albums before Never Let Me Go. In total, seven is also the number of tracks they decided to play from their previous offerings; a single song from every album, bar Without You I’m Nothing, from which we got nothing, and Meds from which we got two. The only two tracks from Never Let Me Go that went unplayed were, This is What You Wanted (probably because of its blatant mediocrity) and The Prodigal.
And if they hadn’t told us we were on a “mission” together for “communion and transcendence” I wouldn’t have questioned the setlist. I get it, and can respect the fact that people outgrow their songs. But, Placebo did say we were on a mission, and they did have the gall to say they wanted to provide transcendence. So, the needling feeling reached fever pitch and drove me to distraction, the internal commentary got loud (but not like, or with, love) and I found myself critiquing the choices made.
Firstly, why choose Bionic if transcendence is the aim? The track has 11 words in total, and if it’s a mantra you’re after, “Harder faster, forever after, None of you can make the grade” is a pretty uninspiring one. Also there’s a little of an overlord tone to it once you couple it with the gig security, yes, those notoriously innocuous people trained to look straight ahead, the ones who mostly just pass out water, or pull fainting people from the pit…
Under the guidance of Brian and Stefan, security staff were armed with torches to bear down a beam of light on anyone who dared hold a phone up. They shouted and gesticulated aggressively at said deviants, and even get other members of the crowd to part so the desired target could be reached. Because nothing says “communion” quite like a light shining in your eyes and an angry face bearing down on you, or feels more peaceful.
Then there’s the obvious, why not play a single thing from your most successful album?
Every You Every Me is the group's most-streamed song, with 19 million streams to date. Pure Morning boasts joint highest Official Singles Chart position, at number 4, (with Nancy Boy). Maybe, it is “Pure Boring” to them, as Stefan admitted back in 2005, but surely they must have affection for one of those tracks? Maybe the one in which they were lucky enough to duet with Bowie, and is the album’s namesake?
In terms of their self-title debut, no matter how much I love it, I can see how Nancy Boy might be triggering, it’s full of self loathing, and very on the nose, maybe that’s hard to play as their identities have evolved, anthem or not. But what about 36 Degrees? That’s begging to be chanted, even if only because a part of me wants to hear everyone stumbling over the numbers that are all so cleverly out of sequence. “4 7 2 3 9 8 5 (I gotta breathe to stay alive) and 1 4 2 9 7 8 (feels like I'm gonna suffocate) 14 16 22 (this skin that turns to blister blue)”.
Sonically, Placebo are still Placebo, their sound hasn’t evolved so heavily that old songs would be out of place with their new ones. Post Blue from 2006’s Meds could sit quite comfortably alongside Forever Chemicals or Try Better Next Time, as could Ashtray Heart or Bright Lights from 2009’s Battle for the Sun.
Lyrically, the nihilism is still there too. There’s still brooding observations about the impact of addiction, whether it’s to drink, drugs, fame or sex. Thematically, Twin Demons could be the older sibling of Special K, but it doesn’t benefit from the wisdom of age. The opening lines tell us, “My monkey mind is drunken, Bitten by a scorpion, Possessed by demons” and the closing lines “My life on the line, (Can’t feel at all)”. Special K starts with the more perceptive, “Coming up beyond belief, On this coronary thief, More than just the leitmotif, More chaotic, no relief, I’ll describe the way I feel, Weeping wounds that never heal, Can the saviour be for real, Or are you just my seventh seal?” and closes with, “No escaping gravity, Gravity”.
Ultimately, while they sounded great and I happily kept my phone away, I found it jarring that I was expected to submit to the will of people who seemed so ignorant to the wishes of their fans. I was taken back to the same feelings of dismay I’d had at the Bristol gig 22 years earlier, because despite the fact they did an encore this time, it was shoddy.
The energy of the 3 songs didn’t flow and then Molko turned his back to us for about five minutes and twiddled with knobs… Olsdal kept his intense eye contact at least, and even sank to his knees while shaking his guitar for some indulgent reverb. But, when the duo and their band did leave the stage, the sounds continued playing as if it was a clever build-up and the crescendo would be their return to stage with a bonafide banger. But no, it just dragged on for another 5 minutes and then the lights came up and we all left slightly deflated.
No song to say goodbye.
