IDLES - BOSTON, MA 9.24.24
Coverage by Adam W Gerhold
LOOK AT HIM GO!!
It’s a constant stalking, brooding, anticipating the ring of the bell for a final attack. A mic swings, cords wrap around amps, and legs, arms, bodies dance, explode into masses of hair, sweat, spit. It’s inviting but dangerous. It’s communal. It’s chaotic but it’s controlled and yet unhinged. It’s Viva Palestine. It’s Scum from the Earth. It’s triumphant and it’s loss. It’s for the memory of our past selves, our future selves, and for the ones no longer with us that we seek justice for. It’s Marcellus Williams. It’s roaring. It’s untamed rage. It’s love, and Love is the Fing. It’s Joe Talbot. It’s Mark Bowen. It’s Lee Kiernan. It’s Adam Devonshire. It’s Jon Beavis. It’s wild. It’s British. It’s IDLES.
The floor to ceiling, very sold out Roadrunner in Boston MA buzzed with energy built up and ready to burst as Joe Talbot gripped the mic and with a weird calm full of buzzing bees, worked through, ”Idea 01,” the opening track of the group’s newest record, TANGK, careening into the pulsing and eruptive, “Colossus.” It was at this moment the cap was kicked off the bottle with such vigor, and the buzzing audience became a swarm of energy. Bodies lifted overhead, Sailing through hands and over faces, and again over the barricade. And with the fire fully blazing, the energy from the rabid animals in the crowd was reciprocated ten-fold by the wild beasts on stage, and at times off stage, as Kiernan would leap into the crowd, guitar and all, and held upright and in all other angles, surfing a sea of smiling, sweating, maniacs. Later joined in a full fan fest in the middle of the floor by Bowen, the dueling guitarists mesmerized the masses in a whirlwind against the constant grooving and driving rhythm of Beavis and Devonshire, with Talbot at the helm. Commanding the ship. Pulling up the anchor. Full speed ahead.
If joy is an act of resistance then Idles teaches the masterclass. This is joy. This is defiance. This is resistance. This is love. Love is the Fing.
LOOK AT HIM GO!!
ENGLISH TEACHER
IDLES
