After 5-weeks of touring across the United States, it was time for Idles to give one last hoorah in Seattle. With no opening act, the excitement of the fans was fully focused on them. The members strolled on stage with bassist Adam Devonshire leading with a thunderous note chiming the beginning of their formidable ‘Colossus’ opening song. As lead singer Joe Talbot started reciting the slow paced lyrics, the crowd echoed them back furiously. The pent up tension was ready to explode in the SoDo and right before it did, Joe asked the fans to divide down the middle to create a wall of love. “Are you ready to look after each other?!” he exclaimed with his fist raised like a racing flag. Chaos ensued as the chanting lyrics continued and guitarist Lee Kiernan jumped down and crowd surfed around the front.
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This week was particularly special for Idles as their fourth studio album ‘Crawler’ was being released on November 12th. They weaved in some of the new material into their setlist such as ‘Car Crash’, ‘The Beachland Ballroom’, ‘Meds’ and a personal favorite that stuck out, ‘The Wheel’. Joe explained the meaning of ‘1049 Gotho’ with an emotional story behind their merch guy Adam Greenwood that connected the two and asked the crowd to cheer for him as the electrifying riff kicked off.
Towards the end of the set, Mark Bowen laid down his guitar, grabbed a microphone and stood proudly in his dress on top of the crowd. He screeched and yelled into the mic before doing acapella renditions of Mariah Carey, Nelly, Jackie Wilson and other hilarious pop song choruses. The light humor left the fans beaming before throwing themselves into a punk frenzy for ‘Danny Nedelko’.
Setlist:
- Colossus
- Car Crash
- Mr. Motivator
- Grounds
- Mother
- Anxiety
- Meds
- Samaritans
- Dive and Conquer
- The Beachland Ballroom
- Never Fight A Man With A Perm
- War
- 1049 Gotho
- The Wheel
- Television
- I’m Scum
- Reigns
- Love Song
- Danny Nedelko
- Rottweiler
Photos © Lukas Holt
