“Are you ready to collide? Are you ready to look after each other?” asks frontman Joe Talbot of the adoring Glasgow audience midway through set opener ‘Colossus’. As is custom at their shows – after a momentary lull – the band explode into life leaving a sea of bodies crashing into one another and singing along to the bravado-filled social consciousness (“I’m like Stone Cold Steve Austin / I put homophobes in coffins…”). It was to set the tone perfectly for the next hour and 45 minute performance.
The Bristol post punk band are on top form this evening, the ferocious energy that flows song to song perhaps isn’t one you’d expect from one approaching their 40s, but this is an experienced band still with the hunger to entertain. Each song is belted out with gusto in return from the packed out Barrowlands venue, the front-half appearing to be one gigantic, sweaty mosh pit.
I recently ran a poll asking my Twitter followers what their favourite IDLES album was and it was little surprise Joy As An Act Of Resistance would sweep the acclaim with 56% of the vote.
What’s your favourite IDLES album?
— 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 (@BFloodlights) February 2, 2022
The love for their 2018 “breakthrough” is definitely seen tonight, the biggest reaction saved for toxic masculinity questioning tracks like ‘Samaritans’ and ‘Never Fight a Man With a Perm’, the latter of which has Talbot set sail for the hearts of the Glaswegian audience by leading the local “here we f***ing go” chant.
‘Mother’, from 2017’s Brutalism, is equally another highlight, the enjoyment so palpable the first two choruses of “Mother….f***er!” are sung exclusively by the Glasgow crowd. Ultra Mono’s ‘A Hymn’ and Crawler’s ‘Car Crash’ bring the tempo down without flattening the intensity, allowing us to appreciate the sonic change of scenery they’ve experimented with at times over their two most recent records.
Being my first time seeing IDLES, it was great to see just how engaging a frontman Joe Talbot is. They aren’t exactly a band that needs gimmicks or showmanship, but he had the audience in the palm of his hand without it ever feeling contrived or corny. Halfway through ‘Scum’, the 37-year-old singer urges a mass sit down, building the tension and then leading a jump along to the song’s chorus. Where I’ve seen other band’s fail at this tactic, here it really added to the drama of the evening’s entertainment.
‘Danny Nedelko’, ‘The End’ and ‘Rottweiler’ end the show with a climax and intensity you can only expect from the Bristol band. As we collect our jackets and made our way for the exits, a bearded, shaggy-haired topless man from The Scottish Highlands leads a cry of “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah, ah, ah, ah” Danny Nedelkoooooo!”. For a brief moment the euphoria rises again to numb the harsh reality of a Scottish winter that was soon to greet us outside.
Were our retinas in pain by the end from the stage lights? “Definitely”. Will our voices be hoarse in the morning? “Of course!” Are our ears still ringing from the noise? “Sorry, can you repeat the question please…” The senses were tested and bodies left bruised and sweaty, all the while man and woman unified to collide and looking after each other. IDLES really are in a league of their own as a contemporary live band.
10/10