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Editors – Olympia Theatre, Dublin

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Editors - Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Editors have grown up. They’re no longer trying to imitate Interpol. Tom Smith and company have moved on to bigger and bolder things. They’re now hell bent on sounding like a darker version of Joy Division, but what we see before us in the Olympia tonight, is a band that wants to be the next Coldplay.

Having graduated from the school of sparse guitars and hooky bass lines, The Editors are now doing what all mediocre bands try to do when they run out of ideas, build a wall of sound, but they just don’t cut the mustard. Tom Smith is running back and forth on the stage like a man who has watched Control too many times, he even sounds disturbingly like Ian Curtis. He then politely sips from his glass of red wine and tells the loyal faithful: ‘thanks we love to play here, it’s a great place to play’.
And that’s about the only bit of audience interaction we get with the band all night. In fairness, there are a few standout moments from their back catalogue- anthems like ‘Bullets’ and ‘Munich’ bringing the gang of predominantly young males close to tears.

But it’s the tunes off the new album where the cringe factor comes seriously into play. Under a layer of keyboards that sound like something from Blade Runner, Smith in all his melancholy glory is spouting profound lyrics such as:

‘No one understands, the way you found your God,
there’s a bullet in your hands,
Give a dog a bone, feed him for the day,
and teach him how to kill and,
I am the posted fence, I am the city wall.’

Judging how Editors’ sermons seem to be progressing, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tom Smith is drinking from a golden chalice by the time their next tour roles around. On the contrived barometer, these guys score a ten out of ten tonight. They just aint got the soul.

Photos by Julie Bienvenu.

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  • Mark

    sorry but i really think the complete opposite. I used to hate Editors and thought they were a poor man’s Joy DIvision/Interpol. But after listening to them and giving them more time i realised that Editors were unfairly labeled with this ‘wanna be Interpol’ tag. They really do put on a good solid show.

    They are definitely more mainstream than the 2 band’s mentioned who have minor similarities between them but if they do it right what’s wrong with that?

    must agree about the lyrics as sometimes they are a little cokey but i tend to enjoy the feel and sound of a song sometimes more than dodgey lyrics.

  • http://aaaphotos.org James Goulden

    Firstly, would be better if you actually quaoted the correct lyrics rather than copying and pasting from the Internet.

    Aside from that gripe, I pretty much disagree completely with this review. The band do not want to be Interpol, Coldplay or Joy Division. They haven’t run out of ideas, they’ve developed a whole set of new ideas by bringing electronic sounds into their set. The new songs are different from their early indie guitar songs and reward the listener after patience as they aren’t obvious pop. From my point of view at the gig, I could see the vast majority of the crowd having a great time, both to the old and the new songs. Tom Smith has always jumped about the stage from the times I’ve seen them play Whelans to playing in the Point, the whole band don’t talk a lot to the crowd, prefering to let their music create the vibe.

    here’s a little idea of what the new stuff sounds like:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpptBrUJUDw

  • Sean Conroy

    Great pictures, regardless of what you make of the band.

  • http://aaaphotos.org James Goulden
  • http://na Jane

    I don’t the song quoted above but judging from the song title Blade Runner and the lyrics, would it be he be singing from the point of view of the character harrison ford plays in the film Blade Runner?
    Jane

  • http://na Jane

    I don’t know the song quoted above but judging from the song title Blade Runner and the lyrics, would it be that he is singing from the point of view of the character harrison ford plays in the film Blade Runner? Not a personsal song relating to Tom literally
    Jane

  • Dave

    The first gig I have walked out of in years. It was absolute and utter self indulgent muck. A lead singer is paid to do just that, sing, not get carried away with his own emphatic love for himself. Maybe if he put more time and effort into his vocals than his stage antics the band might be someway enjoyable.
    The amount of “superfans” at the gig was a surprise, those who feel the need to stand up and air drum every few minutes and prove to everyone just how much they love the band and that they know the lyrics by singing along to each song. And you also have those poor deluded souls who are blatantly devoid of rhythm but still feel compelled to twitch and shimmy off beat in their seats non stop like an epileptic monkey with a bad dose of hemorrhoids. In short, twats.
    The biggest surprise was that the sound quality was so poor. I kept waiting for someone to notice and adjust the output to the speakers, but no. It eventually drove me to leave, thankfully.

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