2008年 Mar 15日 Saturday, 19:00

Wed 27 Feb – Editors, Mobius Band, Frightened Rabbit

Perhaps a bit late to be writing a review of this gig, but I still remember it well, one of the advantages of a midweek gig, with work early the following day!

I'll start with the support bands:

I missed the first support band, Frightened Rabbit. Having briefly listened to a few of their tracks on MySpace, I must admit, I liked what I heard, very fitting for the gig. As I didn't actually see them though, I can't comment further on their performance on the night.

Mobius Band were second on and I arrived about 5 minutes before they arrived on stage. I'd listened to a few tracks of theirs before the gig, so had an idea of what to expect. I was intrigued by their sound initially, but I couldn't help wishing them to play their last song towards the end. It's not that I didn't like them, it just wasn't the sort of sound I wanted to hear live and with the exception of the drummer who put in a good shift, they didn't seem to be enjoying it a great deal, making it hard to watch.

Finally, Editors arrived on stage for the main event of the evening. I had seen them once before at Radio 1's One Big Weekend in Dundee, before the height of their popularity, but the difference between the performance then and now was like night and day. They're a much more confident and accomplished outfit now. I had thought they would be fairly subdued on stage, but they proved me wrong.

The set list was fairly predictable, but that's only to be expected with only 2 albums worth of material. There were no notable absentees, a standard fare of the better tracks from both albums, with the addition of a cover of The Cure's Lullaby.

The crowd certainly seemed to enjoy each song and the band did too, with lead singer, Tom playing up to them, climbing the piano and jumping around at any given opportunity, the stage presence that was missing from their performance in Dundee.

Highlights of the night for me were All Sparks, The Racing Rats and of course the anthemic Munich. I was most surprised that Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors was chosen for the final encore, being one of their slower songs, but it worked well with the crescendo building up at the end.

All in all, the gig was thoroughly enjoyable and I left satisfied.