Polished Performers
Editors are a band that has managed to avoid a lot of the media spotlight that has been focused on British alternative music over the past couple of years. While the headlines have been grabbed by Kaiser Chiefs, Hard-Fi and Arctic Monkeys, this lot have steadily grown a loyal following, that is strong enough to have put their debut album 'The Backroom' in the top ten of the chart for a number of weeks and given them some success in the singles market too. Their ability to write radio friendly guitar music has served them well in building up a reputation as one of the UK's emerging talents.
An Editors crowd has a noticeably high number of females in it, lads if you want to pull an indie girl you could do worse than look where this band are playing. It was Franz Ferdinand who, in their early days, stated they wanted to make guitar music for girls to dance to and this is something that the Editors seem to have been very successful in achieving.
The interesting thing about watching a band with one album play a headline set is seeing where they place their two or three hit singles on the set list. Editors began with album opener 'Lights', and then came hit record number one 'Blood'. 'Bullets' was also in the early part of the set, with current and biggest hit 'Munich' reserved for the latter stages.
After the first four tracks from this Newcastle Academy show, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Editors are a bit one-dimensional. Catchy, bouncy, uncomplicated indie pop is the best way to describe a large part of what they do. The slower track 'Fall' was a welcome diversion from the norm and served as a breather moment before 'Bullets' kicked in.
Another interesting thing about the 'one LP band' gig is seeing which of their album tracks have become unofficial hits in the eyes of the fans. 'Fall' is certainly one which has earned that crown, but one of the best received tracks on this night and doubtless throughout the rest of the tour so far, was 'Camera'. This is a track that after a slow start develops into a genuine classic.
Editors are an extremely slick, well-polished live act, with many of the songs not varying a great deal from how they sound on the album. There's nothing wrong with this because in my opinion there's nothing more frustrating than seeing a band play songs you love but in a style that's a million miles from the version that has caught your imagination. However this set did lack that extra something that would have made it really special. Everyone left the venue having been entertained by a band they like, playing songs they know in a way which they expected, so definitely a job well done. With time and experience and a second album under their belt it will be interesting to see if this well oiled machine can step up to the next level and become a band you'd go out of your way to see live.