The bond between the Netherlands and Editors has been very close for years, so the band easily attracts 7800 visitors to the RTM Stage, the new pop venue in Rotterdam Ahoy. Success is assured, it seems. It is therefore surprising that the chemistry between band and audience is missing this time. Unfortunately, this time it’s a case of your own fault, big bump.
Photography Paul Barendregt
These are turbulent times in the music world, but fortunately the live circuit of today also has its certainties. When Editors arrives, for example, things start to storm. Not surprising: this British rock band, known for the great debut album The Back Room (2005), a modern classic with Joy Division influences and a string of indie hits, has always been good value for money for almost twenty years. Not just musically. If there is anyone who can play the audience, it is singer Tom Smith. Who still remembers the pose on top of the piano at Pinkpop 2008, monumentally captured by star photographer Paul Bergen? Unforgettable for those who were there.
Our southern neighbors still get goosebumps when hearing the ballad No Sound But The Wind. The images of the young fan at Werchter, who sang the song in 2010 with their eyes closed, completely in ecstasy, rightly went viral. This is what pop music can do to people, and why we flock to venues and festivals. Even if a ticket costs fifty euros as it does now, which is no longer even a striking amount in halls of this size. Have you seen the ticket prices of Robbie Williams and Depeche Mode? So it could be much worse.
But for one reason or another, Tom Smith decided to keep it introverted in this huge room – type AFAS Live. Not in the music (which is actually fuller than ever, more about that later) but in gesture. This time he pulls his crazy face, he makes his gestures, he does his dances, but this time he just doesn’t succeed in approaching the audience. He looks at us and we look at him, and it’s like we don’t belong together this time. That feeling is fueled by a hopeless lack of interaction. ‘Thank you Rotterdam’, he doesn’t get much further until just before the encore – he tries that in Dutch by the way, he sounds unintentionally comical like Tom Hanks who in the recent film Elvis turned a Dutch-intended accent into bizarre fake German.
It is also striking that Smith is glued to the microphone stand. Operating on virtually the same square meter, the entire show. What kind of crazy choice is that? This summer, on a EAR at a festival far away in Romania, he still roamed the stage with the microphone in his hand. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. That’s different now. Now Smith is suddenly static. On two screens, high left and right of the stage, we can see that he is still king of crazy faces, but he doesn’t get any further than that. It’s as if the band is too busy with themselves this time. Not helped by what must be by far the most silent concert audience of this year. It is, it must be said, a mess. The height of that sluggishness is also painful: when the confetti cannons start to spray, it remains silent. No applause, no cheers. Nothing. This has not helped anyone. Poor cleaner who gets to wipe all this clean.
It seems to depend on the musical direction of the band. Electronics and beats predominate on the new record EBM and in the search for the translation of that typical studio music (‘Let’s add another layer here, and here!’) the spontaneity has been completely lost. It’s as if the gentlemen now have to go the extra mile to at least do their own part in the rambling sound. The whole thing is accidentally but skilfully locked. They are stacked layer upon layer, in the hall it sounds at the least moments like a slurry you can’t get through, tinny and massive, there is no oxygen in the songs. Most classics get that treatment too. In this, too, things are lubricated closer than ever. Smith starts singing more listless. Hear how he All Sparks sings: different than before, less vicious, less fast, less compelling: the text is hopefully not prophetic. ‘All sparks will burn out in the end.’
It won’t happen yet. There is still life for Editors, EBM seems to be the starting point of a search for how far it can go with those electronics. Next time we will be there again, probably with thousands of fans. It is to be hoped for concert visitors that this was an intermediate phase, in which Editors searched for a new form on stage. There is no arguing about taste, if the band wants to continue with electronics that can also become interesting. Only that audience, that should really no longer be lost sight of. Because even if you put down ten confetti cannons and twenty flamethrowers: if there is a lack of chemistry between band and fans, something will still go wrong.
Seen: October 6, 2022 in RTM Stage, Rotterdam.
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