12 October 2005

The Editors



What a difference a week makes. The latest band occupying the minds of the British music press is The Editors. But this time the hype is entirely justified. Hailing from the unlikely rock ‘n’ roll hotbed of East Anglia, nevertheless these are smart, intelligent and good-looking boys with a distinctly new sound. Think of the chiming angular guitars of Interpol and cross them with the strident baritone vocals of The Killers. Add sharp lyrics and strong melodies and you have The Editors.

I saw them on Tuesday, the final night of a sell-out tour. Three heads from the front, I had a good view of the stage. My favourite Wedgewood Rooms was packed to groaning point with hot sweaty flesh, stirred to fever pitch by New York City bands The Cloud Room and We are Scientists. These are new wave guitar outfits with echoes of The Strokes and The Stills. There was a whiff of money about this debut tour, the light show came from eight of those fancy programmable pods revolving on universal joints. The Editors wore black shirts and trousers and sported matching black Rickenbacker guitars.

New album, The Back Room, provided just enough material to fill a fifty minute set and these infuriatingly young and charming lads engaged in friendly disarming banter with the notoriously demanding Portsmouth crowd. Sweat poured from their heads and their neat black shirts were drenched to the skin. I got the impression ‘this is us and this is what we do’ but not in any arrogant way. Songs of modern life and love delivered with passion and energy.

I headed into the cool night with my T-shirt stuck to me thinking, “yeah that was all right!”

(There's a couple more pics here.)

10 comments:

V said...

I know that feeling PV after a good concert, somehow it feels so liberating to hear a really good band perform. Nice pics by the way. And I'm glad to see this cool band using the same keyboard that I just bought.

Perfect Virgo said...

V - I love the intimacy of those small venues. I read your post about making music and hope it brings some pleasure. We Are Scientists are headlining a small bar gig on Saturday so I'm seeing them again. They feature on the NYC music scene, or so they tell us!

dAAve said...

They sound worth listening to.
I love the pics.

Anonymous said...

im back :)

Perfect Virgo said...

HP - yep a good young band who impressed even more live than on their record.

DG - good. You were away too long but I didn't chase...

Patry Francis said...

Good music is clearly your life's blood, P.V. I'm happy to see you've found some that really got it flowing.

Perfect Virgo said...

Patry - I do make it rather obvious don't I! Wearing my heart on my sleeve is something of a trait.

gulnaz said...

you sound like you really had a good time! great! :) btw, agree with finn's comment.

Perfect Virgo said...

Finn - security gets twitchy with camcorders but they don't mind cameras or phone. Of course like most people I can take video footage too on my Canon Ixus, you just hold your camera high above your head for several seconds and for all anyone knows you are just focusing!!

My old bones are densely tangled at 48, heaven knows what they'l be like at 80!

G - yes I loved this one and I am delighted you were able to enjoy the experience vicariously!

Sirreene - check 'em out babe. And where you flying to in such a hurry?

RuKsaK said...

You are a seriously cool person and say that sincerely.
I haven't been to a gig for about 3 years and you make me want to immediately.