Placebo

“F**KIN’ STADIUM ROCK!”, screams My Vitriol’s lead singer Som Wardner. The crowd let out a huge cheer and clap along to the beat of Ravi Kevasarem’s drums. The audience are fired-up, over excited and...wait a minute, isn’t this one of the support bands?

Tonight’s Placebo gig is set in a packed out, goth-filled, Brian Molko look-a-likes, Brixton Academy. New punk poppers, Little Hell, open the proceedings. Clearly pleased to be there, this is probably their biggest gig to date. The audience happily nod along and, apart from the cheesy words in between songs from front man Steve Ludwin, Little Hell play a good set.

My Vitriol take to the stage next, and in all honesty, they should really be headlining here. Gaining a big cheer from the crowd, they pump out songs from their highly acclaimed debut, “Finelines”. Their strong stage presence is very apparent tonight, with bassist Carolyn looking a lot more confident, like she is really enjoying herself. Som chats to the audience in-between tunes, responding favorably to the crowd’s strong energy.

So onto headliners, the UK trio, Placebo. Being the last night of their European tour, the band put on a good show with as many as three encores following the set. Playing a variety of songs from all their albums, the strongest reactions come from hits ‘Without You I’m Nothing’, ‘Every You, Every Me’, ‘Pure Morning’ and ‘Nancy Boy’. The main problem tonight though is the order that the songs are played. A line of about three slow tunes are performed all in one go. Standing there and watching, it is hard to exactly pinpoint when one song finished and when another one actually started.

All that aside, when Placebo play out their hits, they are good, very good. Seeing emotional and sweaty kids leaving the show, you can tell that they had an amazing time, and lets face it, if the fans enjoyed it as much as they looked like they did, it must have been a spectacular show. It was a pity that some of the songs weren’t up to much, but hey, when you look like Brian Molko, who really cares?