An electrifying show from the kings of guitar rock
Idles Brixton Academy, London SW9 ★★★★★
If you’re a fan of contemporary British guitar-based rock music, you will have noticed a trend towards what I can only, rather apologetically, describe as “recitation rock”. By which I mean the jettisoning of singing in favour of a dry recitational style, with the frontperson declaiming spokenword slogans and phrases over tough backing tracks driven by lean bass and sharp drums, frequently overlaid with fuzzy guitars playing angular riffs.
The kings of this scene, the band whose compelling live shows and grandstanding records have galvanised a thousand other groups, are the Bristolian quintet Idles. They first surfaced in 2016, and have spent the past six years honing their direct, passionate style on four fierce and gripping albums, three of which have been substantial hits in the UK.
They are a perfectly formed band, like The Ramones or Status Quo, with a cartoonish look – shaven heads, beards, tattoos and spasmodic movements – and a sound that seems to drill to the very core of their beings.
On Sunday, opening the first of four sold-out nights at the 10,000-capacity Brixton Academy, they raged about the stage in a blaze of unceasing action and stroboscopic lights, with frontman Joe Talbot bent double and kicking his legs like Norman Wisdom attempting a keep-fit routine. Drummer Jon Beavis struck his drums so hard that you felt there might be some personal animosity involved, the impact of each snare smacking through the venue.
Two guitars buzzed and distorted like a kind of ambient metal noise over the pummelling rhythm, while Talbot roared what was on his mind in short, direct phrases. “Let’s seize the day / All hold hands / Chase the p----s away!” he commanded on Mr. Motivator.
His lyrics are straightforward, and fuelled with lacerating political anger. “The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich,” he declaimed on Mother, an anthem about the vicissitudes of his own mother’s working-class life. I doubt they’ll be on the playlist at the next party at Number 10.
Idles are not nearly as arch or self-consciously clever as most of the bands that have arrived in their wake, including Sunday’s support act, Wet Leg, a bravura female duo. The latter created Velvet Underground-style drone rock topped with so much wit and attitude that the mostly male audience seemed to be in awe of them. If I were a young person seeking a band to pin my dreams on, Wet Leg would be top of the tree.
But Idles had no fear of being upstaged. They took a grip on proceedings, and ripped through a set of raging, heartfelt, post-punk polemics (or maybe that should be post-post-post-post-punk). It wasn’t subtle, but it was pure and perfect and impossible to resist: a mighty noise from a band who know exactly how to make each song, each sound, each beat and each declamation count. Other bands may be taking their lead, but Idles have effectively perfected their own genre of one.
At Brixton Academy tonight and tomorrow, then touring the UK and abroad. Tickets: idlesband.com
Drummer Jon Beavis struck his drums so hard you felt there might be some personal animosity involved