On the way towards this gig, the venue Box Office was still selling tickets, and touts were offering them for below face value. On noticing this, I felt a bit sorry for Idlewild - surely they were good enough to sell out Shepherds Bush Empire? They are supporting REM soon, and sold out Brixton on their last tour. Poor Idlewild.
Inside the venue, Scottish band Sons & Daughters were strange, and I'm not sure it was good-strange. The word to describe them, I think, was "kooky" - although some of the songs sounded good, an alternative word may be "annoying".
When Idlewild came on, my sympathy for their failure to sell out the venue started to evaporate, and pretty fast. Supporting REM is one thing, attempting to become REM is something altogether less forgiveable. And that is what Idlewild appear to be trying hard to do. Lots of songs that could be described as "nice" or "inoffensive", but would never be described as "exciting", or even "interesting".
When they first started, this band used to play live with a plastic shelter round the singer's microphone - because their gigs were such a riot, there was a risk that the singer would lose teeth from the mike smashing into his face. The NME used to review their gigs as unpredictable affairs, which would often degenerate into anarchy. We are a very long way away from that now, and much of what attracted me to Idlewild in the first place (in their records and live performances) has gone away with it.
I just hope the REM route proves to be worth it for them, and they don't end up losing their old fans, whilst failing to win any new ones over.
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