Modern Punk legends IDLES performed a mind blowing set at the OVO Hydro last night, joined by guest musician Willie J Healey.
Though it was the bands first time performing at the Hydro, they proved that they were worthy of the huge arena.
Willie J Healey
The singer-songwriter was accompanied by a tour band and they kicked off the night perfectly with a bit of easy listening indie music.
His usual soft delivery and Lou-Reed-esque sound was traded for a more simplified indie-rock tone that left fans and the audience as a whole confused.
Healey played a 40 minute set but any opportunity he had to shine was snuffed out simply because IDLES were set to play next, and their sounds are completly different.
When it came to warming up the crowd for IDLES, Healey fell short. Him and the band were booed and heckled from the minute they started playing. This left both the audience and Healey at odds with each other, and Healey wasn’t going to be quiet about it.
Before starting the final song of his set, Healey turned to the crowd and shouted, “My Wife left me… My Dad left me… Glasgow left me… F*ck you.”
His anger was well warranted as the crowd at the front of the stage continued to heckle and harass the musician throughout the entire set and into the final song.
Though Healey’s style of music wasn’t for everyone, the poppy atmosphere he set was welcome, even if it was at odds with IDLES brash punk sound.
IDLES
Over two hours after the doors to the Hydro opened IDLES took the stage to thunderous applause. The lights dimmed, and lead vocalist Joe Talbot began to sing the opening lines of Idea 01.
The opener was slow and built towards great transition straight into the iconic opener of the bands second album Joy As An Act of Resistance, Colossus.
Colossus starts heavy with a repetitive bass line, building and building to Talbot’s screams in the chorus. It got the whole crowd moving, but the band cut the song just before the powerful ending.
IDLES introduced themselves to the crowd, praising their enthusiasm and making everyone in the pit split into two halves. Just before the most pit started again Talbot had one last thing to say. He screamed “Well if you’re ready Viva Palestine”.
The band are known for their strong political standing, something that many of the audience were happy to join in on. From multiple screams of “F*ck the King” and calls for “Cease fire now”, they are a force for to be reckoned with when it comes to support for Palestine.
When the mosh pit crashed together the band finished the two part opener with a bang.
IDLES took time between songs to celebrate Scotland and call for the audience to stand together in “unity”. Considering the bands twenty five song set-list, the gig lasted over an hour and a half.
A major highlight of the gig was the bands performance of their legendary COVID anthem Mr Motivator. The most noteable part of the song came when the band skipped the opening lines mentioning convicted fighter Conor Mcgregor.
The band ran through songs from their most recent album TANGK, throwing in some classics from their first album Brutalism.
Towards the middle of the gig the band played a couple of their slower songs including Beechland Ballroom and POP POP POP. Though the crowd didn’t love the change of the pace, it was well needed going into the last couple of songs.
Their incredible set came to an end with four songs that everybody in the crowd knew, and were willing to get up and start dancing for it.
Never Fight A Man With A Perm opened the final songs of the gig, the crowd were split into multiple mosh pits and Joe Talbot was directing them as he pranced around the stage. The energy was maintained into the next song, the first single off of their latest album, Dancer.
Dancer had the people in seating finally stand up and start dancing with one another in a beautiful display of the unity the band wishes to cultivate.
Just as members of the standing audience started to leave IDLES rushed right into Danny Nedelko. During the chorus lead guitarist Mark Bowen jumped into the crowd and started to sing the bridge with the audience.
Just as everyone believed they were about to close the show, Bowen and Talbot started a duet of Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic, All I Want For Christmas. It was a funny moment that lead well in to the final song of the track list Rottweiler.
It was a loud brash closer that blew the roof off of the Hydro, and ended an excellent night at Glasgow’s biggest music venue.
Featured image credit: PCL Presents
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