"Do you give a fuck?"

 

After a shitty week, I was on the edge deciding if I should get out of my head or stay in bed. I bought a ticket to see Placebo weeks ago and had no idea whether or not it would be in my best interest to go. Despite the fact that weeks ago I was entirely dumbfounded how no one had even heard of the band Placebo and was still motivated to go to the concert regardless, it took so much energy for me to decide to go last minute. Thirty minutes before Placebo came on, I was outside in queue for entrance and I was just waiting. I think the anticipation of anything makes me uncomfortable. I watched the stage set up, completely blank of any musicians but of stage crew in clown make up that resembled Pierrot the Clown…a well known icon in Placebo’s musical legacy, the icon was even present all throughout the crowd in people dressed up as clowns to celebrate being in the same venue as Placebo. I thought about giving myself a face make over as Pierrot the Clown but I was rushed for time as I left, barely making it to the venue before the performance.

As the anticipation grew inside of me, I started to wander my eyes around the venue and was in lust with how gorgeous the structure of the o2 Brixton venue was in all areas of beauty. It was large—to signify some importance, it glowed (360 degrees, mind you) and the production was nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I remembered that before I walked in to the actual venue, the outside staff selling shirts and band memorabilia had signs posted that debriefed that they would be filming the concert for DVD and media purposes but I don’t think I thought twice about that until the show started.

Finally, as the stage started to change completely—they played songs off their 2009 album, Battle for the Sun, which is stated as their more optimistic album as all the albums before the current is complete of a darker feel, which made me, fall in love with Placebo from the start. I find that their sense of darkness and emotion make their music seem to authentic to me and completely removed from any other band. They are one of my all time favorite bands and to see them live after contemplating not going would have been tragic for me. The first show, for me, was not as good as the second half of the show that was filled of their older and more known songs (Meds, Protégé Moi, Bitter End, etc). Never before had I had my heart skip to hear any band live the way I had with Placebo. Brian Molko (lead frontman) was as clear as he was through his albums and the variations of songs were ever so complimenting. Though I went alone, I didn’t feel that it was a necessarily lonely experience as the music entirely enraptured me. Screaming at the top of my lungs, dancing until I was completely dehydrated, all was meaningful. The crowd couldn’t have been any better (minus the annoying Australians behind me!), I’ve noticed that British people are VERY respectful of space and will not bump in to you like they would in America unless they are foreigners.

Towards the second half of the show, balloons that were labeled: Fear and Death were dismissed from the ceiling of the venue and rained down on the audience and later, the side of the venue released confetti from the 2^nd half of the show until the very end as well as Pierrot stage crew clowns blasting Placebo memorabilia in to the audience! From all the other concerts I’ve been to, I’ve never felt so loved by being a fan and that was the most inspiring of the concert. I haven’t been able to stray away from listening to live sets of Placebo since yesterday when I saw them.

(Note: For those interested in photos of the event, I’m sorry to disappoint but I didn’t want my camera to take away from my experience.)

Tracy Nguyen

UCSC