Placebo, The Vasco Era @Festival Hall, Melbourne(22/01/10)

Thu 25th Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It was half past seven o’clock, and confused lines of fans crisscrossed outside of Festy Hall. There was a curious sign outside the entrance listing Placebo’s bizarre conditions of entry: no cameras, no plastic dolls, no soft toys, no large key rings, no key chains or no metal cigarette lighters. A security guard yelled out at the crowd, “The artist apparently has boxes at home! No soft toys!”

If you’re opening for one of the world’s biggest touring bands, it can sometimes get awkward if the crowd doesn’t know your work. The Vasco Era sideswiped this cleverly by opening the night up with an energetic, rough-cut rendition of The Beatles’ Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. After performing the cover, singer Sid O’Neil asked the crowd in his amazingly unaffected voice, “Do you like The Beatles? I do.”

Perhaps it was their Iggy Pop-like raw energy, O’Neil’s raucous resonator or Michael Fitzgerald’s heavy-hitting drums, but The Beatles’ cover dispelled any uncertainty in the crowd as they fired through tracks like Lucille and the super-sexy, blue-grass tinged Honey Bee (When It Was Making Weird Love Songs). The singer from Vasco Era has the kind of voice that gets kids beaten up at school: constantly wavering, slightly unsure and sounding a little like he’s an adolescent whose voice is about to break. But O’Neil is now a rock star of sorts and he gets to open for Placebo, so guess who has the last laugh.

The definition of a placebo is something that clinically has no physiological action, but often does have some sort of psychological effect. Alternative gods Placebo certainly lived up to their name at their Melbourne sidewave by making their fans very, very happy. Newbie devotees would have been exceptionally pleased, because the London band opened with For What It’s Worth, Ashtray Heart and Battle for the Sun. Over the course of their two-hour long set, they performed 10 out of the 13 tracks from their latest not-so-excellent album Battle for the Sun. Do the maths – that’s a hell of a lot of new material.

Even so, Placebo showed us with their full-on performance why they are one of the few successful bands from the nineties to survive the past decade. Founding member and vocalist Brian Molko’s voice has not changed or aged in the slightest, and bassist and guitarist Stefan Olsdal seems to only get more comfortable in front of the crowd. The newest addition to the Placebo family, Steve Forrest seemed right at home at the skins, and the legions of girls screaming over his half-naked body proved that the crowd had no hard feelings about the line-up change. With their six-piece live band, songs like Follow the Cops Back Home and Ashtray Heart that sound okay recorded were instead explosive and amazing live.

Placebo obviously still know what the fans want – ending both their set and their encore with old favourites. They finished their set with an absolutely mind-blowing, electric, fantastic, any-other-positive-adjective performance of The Bitter End. Their encore included Bright Lights, Infra-Red and Taste In Men. The only disappointing track was Meds, with a slowed-down intro that was so sluggish that the “babeeee, did you forget to take your meds” hook was no longer catchy.

Molko and Olsdal also seemed way happy to be in Melbourne – more so than the footage of Molko throwing bottles at a Soundwave cameraman or their last performance in Australia. “Oh my god,” Molko explained. “It’s good to be back in this town. I love every one of you, but you should also know that I don’t kiss on the first date.” The English singer was just as appreciative of their opening band. “How many of you came to see The Vasco Era? I know, I know, you all came to see the headlining band,” Molko commented with an “oh, you” kind of expression. “But the Vasco Era are now my favourite Australian band… after Men At Work. Everyone has to have a guilty pleasure.”

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