Placebo are real deal!

Posted by Lara Masters at 12:11 on 13 May 2009

• Print
• Share
• Comment

Last night I went to see Placebo play at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

I was on the list. (My Mum recently met the drummer, Steve Forrest, at a restaurant bar and she told him he was far too gorgeous to be on his own and insisted he join her table for drinks. So they’re friends now but she doesn’t know her Placebo from her actual medication. Which is the point isn't it?  Coz that’s when they work.)

Anyway, mum happened to mention she had been invited to see Placebo and go to the after show party. I said it would be outright rude to refuse the invitation from her NBF but it was probably better if I go as it was pretty-much druggy, head-banging music, not soul classics like they play at Annabel's.

Like candy from a baby. The gig was AMAZING. It’s not head-bangy – that was just my ruse to get the tickets. Although there are quite a few references to drugs so it wasn’t a complete lie. But some of the songs allude to prescription drugs which is not quite the same thing.

They played “Meds” which is one of my favourite songs EVER. And new stuff from their album - out June 9th.

The music reverberated through my soul.  

Well, it certainly loosened my hub-caps up. My chair is jangling a-plenty today.

I went to the after-party and got chatting to the band. It was a cinch; the party was small and most people are too cool to go up and talk to the band. Not me! I got right in there talking drumming techniques and guitars - 6-strings, 12-strings, Gibsons, Washburns, Fender Precisions etc.

The bass player Stefan Olsdal told me he had been in the band for 15 years which I could not understand unless he joined when he was 7. And I think there are laws against that.

I spoke to Steve who is really gorgeous (as you can see in above photo) and – as Brian (Placebo lead singer) describes him – he’s "half man, half ink"; almost completely covered in a rainbow of tattoos – all displayed on a very beautiful canvas one can't help but notice. When he takes his top off to point out various pieces.

I love Placebo. Sigh.

• Next entry
• Previous entry