She Wants Revenge, we want Placebo

[illusionofjoy]

I decided to take today off from work. Aside from the dateline on the newspaper, it doesn't feel like Monday; it feels like Sunday. Regardless, I have to go to work tomorrow and that depresses me. I just don't find Dilbert remotely funny anymore.

I made this a long weekend to compensate for a Saturday night trek to Cleveland to see Placebo (with opener She Wants Revenge) at The Agora. The drive to Cleveland was with incident, the only major annoyance being the construction on the Beaver Valley Expressway. It seems that most of the highway has actually been repaved; yet PennDOT has opted to continue restricting the road to one lane in each direction. This in of itself isn't unexpected, however, the sudden lane shifts at each and every overpass were. Without any signage or prior warning, the lane would swerve three feet to the right whenever we drove onto a bridge and then swerve back again. These strange twists made night driving less than pleasant.

Upon arriving at the Agora, joi_division and I discovered that the lot we usually park in - the secured parking behind the venue - was at capacity. We were directed to the overflow lot nearby, which required driving around the block. The first time Joi and I had ever gone to the venue, a few years back, we encountered a bum with an orange flag who was attempting to run a parking scam. This time, as we drove around the block, we noticed that said bum had recruited three or four of his buddies, all of whom were attempting to flag traffic into an abandoned lot. With doors locked and windows rolled up, I drove through the intersection to the overflow lot, where an Agora employee was waiting.

As I gave him the five dollar parking fee, I mentioned that the "orange flag brigade" was hanging out on the other side of the street. "Not those fuckers again," he said, rolling his eyes, "great." It seems to be a problem in that particular Cleveland neighbourhood where bums try to flag down unsuspecting concert-goers in an attempt to part them with their hard-earned cash.

The concert was held in the theatre portion of the venue, which is much larger than the ballroom. Joi and I arrived just in time to see She Wants Revenge take the stage.

She Wants Revenge, with only one album out (self-titled), performed a set culled entirely from that album. Not a cover was to be heard, though they likely could have played Joy Division's Closer from start to finish and no one would have been the wiser. In any case, these two former DJs from Los Angeles (with hired backing band) seem to be the West coast's answer to Interpol. Sadly, while She Wants Revenge have potential - the buzzworthy singles "These Things" and "Tear You Apart" - none of their songs reach the grandeur of "NYC" or "Not Even Jail."

Placebo has grown on me over the years, as I've come to accept that their songs will either be monumentally beautiful or embarrassingly botched in their execution. Thankfully, their set leaned more towards the beautiful side of the scale, the only exception being the overrated "Taste In Men," one of their worst singles and a horrible way to open Black Market Music.

The set leaned heavily towards songs from the group's latest studio album, Meds. They opened with that disc's first single, the superbly menacing "Infra-Red." Also from their latest disc was the title cut as well as "Song To Say Goodbye," "Because I Want You" and "Drag." From Sleeping With Ghosts: "The Bitter End," and that album's title track (often erroneously referred to as "Soulmates Never Die"). Songs from Black Market Music included the aforementioned "Taste In Men" along with "Special K." Only one song from Without You I'm Nothing made the set list, the second single "Every Me, Every You," eschewing their sole US hit "Pure Morning." Nothing from the group's self-titled debut was played, however they did slip in the song "20 Years," the only new track from the Once More With Feeling compilation along with a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill."

I suspect that Placebo weren't too impressed with Cleveland, as they neglected to play an encore (which would have been the perfect opportunity to whip out "Pure Morning"). In fact, for this tour, they've only booked a total of fifteen dates in the United States. Frankly, I don't blame them, considering the way in which radio here snubs worthwhile music. It's a good thing they didn't play Pittsburgh, as Joi put it, "they probably would have pulled a Morrissey, stepped in a mud puddle and refused to play."

The drive home was uneventful, though the lateness did throw off the internal clock for all of Sunday. Thus, I sit here on Monday finally regaling you with the tale.

Comments

[crashzero.livejournal.com]

Were you two standing at the back of the theater on the left side? I tried to say Hi to some one that looked like you and joi_division but got looked at funny.

I was annoyed with no encore as well, I was kinda disapointed not to hear: Post Blue and 20th Century boy.

Other than that it was pretty cool, I liked the venue, and Stephan stared at me most of the way through their set. I was about in the middle of the pit.