Editors @ 9:30 Club (March 29, 2006)

Setlist:

Lights
Blood
All Sparks
Fall
Bullets
Camera
You Are Fading
Munich
Weight
Bones
Open Your Arms
Fingers In The Factories

I was out in the blogosphere getting informed, getting lied to, and just kind of fucking around when I found a kind of backlash to some of these up and comers from the UK (Maximo Park, Arctic Monkeys, Editors, and the like). Part of it was directed at Editors. If the person who posted it has only listened to the album "Back Room" and hasn't seen these guys live, I can understand it to an extent. JK had pumped Editors up to me, based on a live performace he caught a month or so ago in NYC. I bought the album the day it came out (along with Ben Harper's BOTH SIDES OF THE GUN). Upon first play I wasn't terribly impressed, and I was a little let down with the studio version of songs that I loved when I saw them performed live on FabChannel. I was giving the benefit of the doubt to Editors (partly because I already owned tickets to their show at the 9:30 Club) and a twin bill with stellastar* was not going to be missed because the positives far outweighed the negatives. This meeting would probably make or break my relationship with Editors (at least until a future, improved album release).

Here's the deal: the sound of Editors needs to be harnessed properly in the studio, because it is an awesome, powerful experience live. I don't feel all of the textures when I listen to the album. I am not pulled in. And I am not left begging for more when the album cycles on itself in the iPod. I felt that way when I saw them live. I didn't want it to end. I wanted the drums to keep crashing, I wanted Tom Smith to hop behind the keyboard again and show me something I haven't seen or heard in a while.

A note on the setlist...and I don't know if Ed Lay was intentionally reluctant with the presence of his drumming, or if it was the order of the songs...but all of a sudden they hit "Bullets" and I was like, "fuck, this guy can drum." The boys were excited to be in DC, and they noted that it was their first time in DC between songs. Most of the discourse outside of the songs was along the lines of thank yous. For what they bring to the table, they are quite humble. During the songs they are lost in the moment, and it is one of those things that makes the songs both welcoming and overpowering. When Smith sings "blood runs through your veins, that's where are similarity ends" it digs at you. It requests your feeling, your input. It wants you to share that feeling. That isolation. That hatred. Seeing him raise up to the crowd, quietly explode at his keyboard, or shake violently with his guitar brings an emotional accessibility and power to the songs and to their performance that you simply cannot deny.

I expect big things from this band. If they can bring to an album what they bring to a live performance, they have a bright future. As it stands right now, I will take a band that destroys live and has weak studio albums than a band that is poor live and has amazing studio albums (see The Killers). "Weight" and "Bones" are two new songs and they already show some movement in different directions. You can't help but be excited.

Catch Editors live at the following East Coast locations:

Apr 1 Trocadero Philadelphia, PA
Apr 2 Sonar Baltimore, MD
Apr 4 The Norva Theater Norfolk, VA
Apr 5 Cat's Cradle Carrboro, NC
Apr 6 40 Watt Club Athens, GA
Apr 7 The Social Orlando, FL
Apr 8 Studio A Miami, FL
Apr 9 State Theater St. Petersburg, FL

They are also a Day 2 performer at Coachella.

MySpace
Official website