Recensie Placebo

20 years long history behind them Placebo started their performance rather unpretentious than being sure their true fans were in the so large impossible to count audience. The iconic band with seven studio albums and a numerous awards, demands no introduction, every single one of the crowd knows them, and every single one gets the song right just by hearing the first chord. Lyrics about drugs, painful love and loneliness were just the ones the crowd demanded.

Despite mostly being considered as a glam rock band, Placebo’s music has developed through the years. Starting as an emotionally saturated dark two-some as most of the crowd remembers them from their teenage years, now the band has several touring member additions including the drummer Matt Lunn, who was bravely keeping up with the rest of the band even preforming songs from the second album, which was released 17 years ago.

While many bands would be cautious to loose old fans‘ admiration by changing the  arrangement of the popular compositions such as Twenty Years, Placebo provided some new extensions to familiar songs. Although they didn‘t take the liberty to change the most iconic one - Every You Every Me. And when the lead of the band Brian Molko got to the old compositions, the audience saw him brightened up and felt the energy, which was a little lacking in the beginning of the show.

Taking the crowd through the journey of sound evolution, Placebo gave a sneak peek of the band they used to be about 10 years ago bringing their fans in the front rows to tears. But subjectively we felt a slight lack of sentiment, watching them on stage for the second time after a good seven year break. We missed Brian’s black nail polish, we missed his energy singing each and every bit of his pain away, but most of all, we guess, we just missed the old times, when we woke up and went to bed listening Placebo playing in our headphones. And honestly probably it was not Brian getting older or less energetic, it was us realising we can‘t get the wildness and emotions of our teenage years back. 

< Liva Romane >