IDLES live in London: Britain’s most thrilling rock band reign supreme
On their second night at Alexandra Palace, these Bristol punks show exactly how they became one of Britain's biggest rock bands
By Nick Reilly
There’s a poignant moment late on during IDLES’ second night at Alexandra Palace when frontman Joe Talbot reflects on how the group first played here in 2017 at the bottom of the bill for a string of farewell shows from The Maccabees.
Seven years later and they find themselves in a very different place altogether. They’ve evolved from scrappy Bristol punk upstarts to a group that headlined Glastonbury’s second stage this summer – and they now find themselves in the curious position of becoming one of Britain’s biggest rock bands.
It’s clear in the theatric, slow-burning drama of their subdued TANGK track ‘IDEA 01’ that opens the set and ups the ante, before they head straight into the brooding beat of ‘Colossus’. At the centre of it all is Talbot’s hulking showmanship – stalking the stage like a Victorian prizefighter just about ready to knock your head clean off.
This, in turn, is met by the hordes of mosh pits that break out at Talbot’s request after he splits the crowd in two. It’s particularly evident when they head into the pogoing punk of ‘Mr. Motivator’ – a song which also sees Talbot omitting a line about Conor McGregor after an Irish civil court ruled last month that the UFC fighter sexually assaulted a woman in a Dublin hotel.
It might not always be subtle – a stick that some of the band’s more hardened critics often use to beat them with – but the Ally Pally crowd couldn’t care less when the performance is this explosive and the energy never lets up. Talbot’s guttural cries of “viva Palestina” are met with wild roars, while even Florence Welch is spotted at one point getting right in the middle of the crowd and throwing anonymity straight to the wind.
There’s moments of brilliant silliness too. ‘Love Song’ sees the band throwing karaoke style requests out to the crowd for shattered renditions of The Beatles and The Cranberries – and there’s the scrappiness of guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan throwing themselves into the crowd with the wildest of abandon.
Moves like these may have been honed in the dingy DIY basements where they first made their name, but it’s to their credit that they’ve effortlessly translated that raw passion to the largest of stages – becoming one of Britain’s most thrilling live bands in the process.