Bristol punk band Idles, last week nominated for ‘British Breakthrough Act’ at the prestigious Brit Awards, played the first of two sold-out shows in Auckland last night. RNZ Music's Tony Stamp was there.
Idles singer Joe Talbot at The Tuning Fork Photo: Tony Stamp
“I can see a lot of white faces in this room… which means there are a lot of immigrants here”.
So observed Idles singer Joe Talbot a few songs into their sweaty, pounding show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork last night, before bemoaning the “racist c***ts” in his homeland of Britain and launching into the pro-immigrant anthem ‘Danny Nedelko’.
It was a typically astute, barbed observation from the whip-smart frontman, who went on to lead his band through a series of politically-charged punk jams. Other topics included Brexit, the NHS, and England’s “racist, disgusting right-wing press”. But far from a finger-wagging scold-fest, this was an exceedingly fun show. This is, after all, a band whose second album is called Joy as an Act of Resistance.
Talbot is all about locking eyes with the crowd, leaving most of the theatrics to his bandmates, particularly guitarists Lee Kiernan and Mark Bowen, the latter of whom never stopped dancing, pantomiming along with the lyrics, and leaping into the crowd. I genuinely lost count of the number of times the pair went crowd surfing.
The shenanigans peaked when they invited around ten people on stage and got two of them to play their guitars. Mark pulled a cymbal off the drums and invited a punter to whack it. It was a beautiful kind of chaos.
Idles guitarist Mark Bowen at The Tuning Fork Photo: Tony Stamp
Many of the band’s songs are about dismantling old ideas of manhood. Talbot makes it blatant in ‘Samaritans’ when he sings “the mask of masculinity is a mask that’s wearing me”. And while they play noisy, aggressive music, their presence on stage is exceedingly friendly. Silly even. I’ve never seen a band so dedicated to dancing with their hips. It gave me flashbacks to Les Savy Fav, another loud act not afraid to look a bit goofy.
Talbot’s lyrics are often very funny too. In ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’ he sang “Me, oh me, oh my, Roy/ You look like a walking thyroid/ You're not a man, you're a gland/ You're one big neck with sausage hands”, looking surprised that the crowd knew all the words. He later said “How am I? I’ve just flown around the world to have my lyrics sung back to me. I’m f***ing great.”
He thanked the bar staff, the promoters, security, thanked opening act Miss June “for making us look old and shit”, and thanked the crowd many times over “for making us feel so welcome”.
It felt very humble, particularly from a band who are quite rightly being hailed as one of the most exciting in the world right now. Near the end of the set, Talbot addressed the crowd, saying “We’re only here because of you. We are your performing monkeys. If a band ever comes here and looks bored, tell them to f*** off.”
Idles play at The Tuning Fork in Auckland tonight, and Meow in Wellington tomorrow.
