Live Review

IDLES, Forum, London

18th October 2018

The ‘moment’ it always threatened to be, tonight confirms the Bristol quintet to be the country’s most vital band.

Words: Will Richards
Photos: Emma Swann
19th October 2018

Nights like this don’t come around too often. Across 2018 so far, leading up to and in the wake of the release of their second album - the bombastic, vital ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’ - IDLES have cemented their place as the most important band we have in the UK right now. A revelationary festival season was followed by a massive US tour, but all roads for the Bristol five-piece have been pointing to tonight - the biggest headline show to date at a sold-out London Forum. There’s no marketing spin on the term tonight either; right back to the exits, bodies are crammed together tightly, space to even raise a fist at a premium.

There’s a palpable energy in the room tonight, one of a crowd fully aware that it may be the last time they see IDLES in a room this size, and that they’re seeing a band at the blistering peak of their powers. ‘Joy…’ opener ‘Colossus’ is a dark, thudding introduction, tension as thick as the air inside the sweatbox venue building to breaking point, before releasing in a glorious collision of bodies as the track careers into its riotous finale, before more of the same follows on ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’.

‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’, the best album of 2018, is a record that champions vulnerability, openness and community, and these threads also sit at the heart of tonight’s show. Frontman Joe Talbot dedicates ‘Danny Nedelko’ to the immigrants that make this country a better place, with the titular man in question bursting out on stage at its finale, while ‘Divide & Conquer’ is introduced as an ode to the NHS.

For all the ways in which tonight is a deeply important, moving show, it’s also more than a little bit ridiculous. Guitarist Mark Bowen - the band’s dancing mascot, decked out in just a pair of pants - prances his way across the stage like an Olympian, when he’s not wading through the front rows with his guitar, that is. For a debauched thrash through ‘Exeter’, Bowen scales the venue’s balcony before the band invite a bunch of fans on stage to shred, hit drums and share hugs all round. Joe helps a crowd member find a shoe, labels IDLES a band who don’t do encores “cos we’re not weird”, and the show has as many laugh-out-loud moments as it does teary ones.

“In the words of Kathleen Hanna: girls to the front,” he demands before a closing ‘Rottweiler’, before the crowd parts and a sea of audience members switch places without a hitch - the often macho bravado of punk shows is absent tonight, replaced by a genuine sense of community, and a sold-out crowd brought a little bit closer to each other by this band. 2018 has been a tough year for more reasons than able to count - most of which Joe denounces across the show - and being able to sweat, sing and dance out these frustrations to the most empathetic music being made right now, as well as being made to feel part of a genuinely important musical community, make tonight one that will live long in the memory.