Psicle: Finally Idley

Having not seen Idles before despite trying including a couple of years ago at Live at Leeds I'm clutching my printed ticket with Simon's. Pete has left it too late but gets one off a tout for not much more than we paid if you include all the crap like booking fees and delivery even though I printed it at home. After meeting and a swift one at the Bull and Gate we get frisked on the way in (what a waste of time that is) and catch the last couple of songs of support Heavy Lung who sound raw basic and shouty. Much like the early 80s west country punk outfits - so sub Subhumans. Promising though. The bar's crazy so we don't bother and join the mainly young and bearded crowd on the dance floor. Surprising amount of space if you don't mind moving around a bit and braving the mosh pit hinterland. After a very traditional sound check by the roadies Idles take the stage obviously expecting it to be a hot one as one of the guitarists in just in his underpants. Very fetching and pleased to say no wardrobe accidents as far as I could see occurred during his very energetic set. They start brilliantly with a lot of energy across the band. Madly jumping and swinging guitarist (pant man) with the other rhythm guitarist cutting a few moves himself too. Bassist throws himself and axe (as we say in the trade - but can you call a bass an axe?) around with abandon and the drummer is hitting seven bells outta his kit. The singer is the front man though and shouts screams and yes sings with a lot of venom and feeling. It's a great band. A good crowd too with just the right amount of dancing pogoing and moshing and only one time when a mosh circle is made which I never understood apart from overly macho types showing to everyone else how hard they are by jumping into the middle. Shut up and dance you gits. Old codger moan moment - why the hell do people queue for 30 minutes for a 2 pint glass of beer and then throw most of it over the audience. Particularly galling if half goes over my head and back which happened. Mind you the beer always tastes shit here so I would do the same. After a few brilliant songs it all goes a bit stadium anthem like like they want to be a harder U2 or something. I'm beginning to get a bit bored and maybe that's when Simon slunk off as by this time I've lost both him and Pete. Just as I've thinking they've lost me (everyone else seemed to like it still) the singer goes on a pathetic rant about how the vote to leave the EU was the worst decision ever made by Britain. Note - it was a vote - it's democracy in action mate. And worst decision - I guess building our empire, the slave trade, the way we made the Irish starve whilst exporting their wheat etc. etc. is worse than democratically voting to leave an organisation that has legally binding rules for member countries to embrace capitalism and after the last crash allowed Germany to force privatisation onto the southern European states knowing damn well that German, French and British firms would profit. All the crowd loved it of course and I did think about whether to shout F Off or to just vote with my feet but the way out was jammed and so I hung around anyway. Sorry, did I just digress? Anyways after the Brexit moaning song things picked up again and soon I was jigging and jumping about with the others. Stopping the music and insisting everyone hug their neighbours put me into a more reconciliatory mood after my initial resistance not helped by only having had one pint all night (apparently Pete boycotted the moment) and after having to hug a couple of big sweaty beardy types we get back to the music and dancing. The last part of the set goes back to great sounds more punk and indie inspired than post pop stadium rock and we are entertained by guitarists variously coming into the crowd and appearing on the steps coming down from the balcony. Then we're onto the last song "we don't do encores" (why not - we're paying for this) which ends with a fantastic bout of rock and roll feedback with guitars and bass being hit on the floor and swirled around next to the amps so I guess it beats an encore. See video for a taster. All in all a great night. I wait for Pete at the tube and it's back down south. Next to me on the tube is a youngish girl clutching a drum stick and looking very pleased with herself. Lovely memento of a great night and I'm sure on her mantelpiece, or wherever kids show off their booty (as in treasure, not George Clinton's meaning of booty). The only one I ever got was a drum stick from Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias which ain't quite the same as Idles. But check them out anyway...