Photo by Stephen McGill
Partway through English Teacher‘s set opening for Idles at Coca Cola Coliseum on Friday night, singer Lily Fontaine commented, “There’s a lot of you out there,” adding that this was the largest venue they’d played to date.
Whoever was operating the house lights took that as their cue to turn the lights up, which might have shattered the band’s illusions a bit as far as exactly how many were in attendance right then. Granted, there was still quite a sizeable crowd right up front to catch their set, but scanning further back, especially into the cheap seats, things looked decidedly sparser. Clearly, there were some who decided to skip the opener. Still, the band played a solid set of tunes from their debut album This Could Be Texas for those who showed up early and given that they recently won the Mercury Prize back home, I’d imagine English Teacher will likely be playing to bigger crowds soon enough.
By the time Idles took to the stage, the crowd had grown considerably and there was definitely some excitement in the air in anticipation of their performance. Frontman Joe Talbot took notice of this, thanking the crowd early on “for giving us so much energy already” and later noting how the crowd energy gives them energy in return.
And with Idles, energy is key. There’s an aggressive yet joyful and positive energy in an Idles show and there was plenty of energy on display throughout, from Talbot manically pacing back and forth onstage to the circle pits that erupted in the crowd, to guitarist Mark Bowen jumping into the crowd on no less than 3 occasions during their set.
No venturing into the crowd for Talbot though, despite the urging of one audience member who was apparently bugging him to do so. “I don’t like crowds,” he said, adding that “no means no” and that he hoped that was understood. Talbot was significantly friendlier however to another audience member holding up a sign asking for an autograph (though he still ripped into him a bit for ruining other people’s enjoyment of the show by holding up a sign). Partly to make sure he put the sign down and partly for a bit of a break, Talbot invited the guy up and did indeed sign his jumpsuit, but he urged him not to bring any more signs to shows in the future.
Noting that they started the band as a reaction to right wing press spreading fear, Talbot talked about the importance of building a bridge in order to help people feel like something bigger than themselves, which is exactly what they hoped the band could do. Looking out over the crowd on Friday night, I’d say that Idles most definitely brought people together on this occasion.
Having seen Idles for the first time at SXSW 2017 with all of the members squeezed onto the tiny corner stage of BD Riley’s pub, it does seem a little surreal to me that they’re now able to fill an arena. Not necessarily surprising – they’re certainly deserving of all their success – but still a little weird.
Still, it’s pretty damn cool to see folks go wild as Joe Talbot sings, “The best way to scare a Tory is to read or get rich” or to hear the crowd eagerly chant along with what Talbot referred to as the new English national anthem as he led them in a chorus of “Fuck the king!” So while it may be weird to think of Idles as an arena band, that’s the kind of weird I can get behind.
