Artist : Editors
Support : British Sea Power
Venue : Margate Winter Gardens
Date : 05/11/13
It is always totally cool when bigger bands come down your neck of the woods to play at your local venue. On a grand, clear and calm evening on Guy Fawkes Night, Editors begin the first show of their UK tour in support of their fourth album ‘The Weight Of Your Love’.
Ironically, I usually am the one of the first to find out about local music happenings, so it genuinely surprised me that I found out about Editors playing the Margate Winter Gardens only 48 hours before the show. I did not really see a lot of, if any, advertising for the show in general, apart form when I saw a flypost for the actual show on a billboard a couple of towns down.
Upon this information, I decided to travel on down to the show. Thing is as much as I have heard of Editors and have known them primarily for their song ‘Munich’, I never actually gave myself the time of day to listen to them as they did not really stand out in my own personal opinion in the past. Also under a little research upon past album reviews and a couple of years without much activity, Editors seemingly are under the critical spotlight, due to the sole fact of if they are as relevant as they were.
Tonight at this fairly busy venue, is the start of a long campaign to prove their critics and naysayers wrong. Also for myself personally, to see what all the fuss is about after all this time of not taking a moment to check them out.
First up was British Sea Power, which I managed to capture the last few songs of their set. to be honest I did not realise that these guys were still about! Last time I saw them was at Reading Festival sometime in the early / mid 2000’s at one of the smaller stages, and I fondly remember them being quite good. Tonight they sound just as good as I remembered them, although there seemed to be a tiny little technical glitch with the microphone at one or two points. Regardless, they are in good spirits and on top form and provide a decent warm up to tonight’s proceedings.
Now again, I am not overly familiar with Editors. So tonight’s set would either be one of three things… very bad, mediocre, or very good. They were none of these… they were fucking incredible.
It has been a long time since I have been blown away by a band live, probably the last time I was genuinely mindblown by seeing a live band was when I saw Mono with the Holy Ground Orchestra at the Koko in London.
But tonight, Editors were absolutely brilliant. Kicking off proceedings with new track ‘Sugar’, it was a genuinely haunting and atmospheric experience to kickstart this solid set of brooding, haunting, and gloriously uplifting songs.
See this is the strange thing about Editors. They make some great tunes in the vein of post-punk musings of Joy Division, the alternative electronica leanings of Depeche Mode, and with extreme touches of heavily reverberated post-rock influences like Caspian, Mono, and Explosions In The Sky. So with this combination, it would be somewhat an indication of a sort of moody and depressing take on songwriting… however each individual song is bizarrely uplifting.
Other new songs such as ‘A Ton Of Love’, ‘Honesty’, and ‘Formaldehyde’ and aired tonight, and get a great response from the present crowd. Other classics which they have previously written such as ‘Munich’, ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’, and an extended version of ‘Papillon’ all get the crowd in to a joyus and at times raucous nature.
Additionally there is also an amazing stage production on show tonight which would not look out of place at a Muse concert, which just made things so much better. A mixture of some amazing atmospheric and moody lighting, which highly compliments the nature of Editors songs and the mood of the music.
In terms of the music, it must be said that Editors are a genuinely accomplished and underrated bunch of musicians that KNOW how to make a damn great composition. But I got to tip my hat to lead singer Tom Smith, whose baritone vocals and musical diversity are a genuine treat. A very talented frontman by all means, and a very underrated one to that.
I walked away from the gig tonight a very surprised man. Looking around at all of the happy faces of the audience, it is safe to say that everyone was extremely pleased with Editors performance tonight. My reservations solely lied with the lack of advertising for this event which I was genuinely surprised about, but it turns out there was vastly big crowd down here to warrant a great atmosphere.
Tonight was solid proof that Editors are more relevant than they ever have been, and by the looks of the appreciation they show the crowd, they are very grateful for everything.
I sincerely hope that these guys continue to keep on making music and proving all the critics wrong, because tonight chaps… you just won over a new fan. A triumphant evening by all means.
Score : 9/10
