Editors + Whispering Sons @ Arena Birmingham 27th February 2020
It made a nice change to go to a gig and not get battered about on the way there by the deluge of storms we’ve faced over the last few weeks. It was a bloody cold night, but Editors are the perfect band to get the crowd moving enough to forget about the weather.
The evening was kicked off by Whispering Sons, a Belgian post punk outfit with a very energetic singer fronting them.
They gave a raw and honest performance that was well received by the slowly growing crowd.
I was surprised to see that Editors had picked the Arena for the Birmingham leg of The Black Gold tour, which was promoting their greatest hits record, released back in October ‘19. The Birmingham Arena being the second biggest venue in the city and having a capacity of 15k, it was a tall order to shift that many tickets, this was clearly the case as the venue was split in half and still wasn’t anywhere near selling out. Waiting for the band to step out on to the stage you couldn’t help but think one or two nights at the Academy might have been a wise choice as the atmosphere just felt to me a little flat.
Being essentially a greatest hits tour, before Editors even stepped on to the stage you knew you were in for setlist filled with all the hits and fan favourites, the set began with An End has a Start which got the crowd going enough to fill some of the void.
Frontman Tom Smith was his usual energetic self, moving about the stage and interacting with the fans and his fellow band members. The stage show that Editors had designed for this tour was impressive, revolving around a massive overhead bank of lights that moved and changed angles throughout the set, there was no way this was going to fit in to any non-arena sized venues.
The first part of the set was full paced and energetic, covering some of the fans best loved songs. After they played Papillon the pace slowed a little with Tom moving to his trademark centre stage piano position, this gave the crowd further opportunity to sing along and join in, filling the venue and upping the atmosphere even more. The encore was based around three of Editors most popular songs, finishing on Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors which ended the evening perfectly.
Despite the lower ticket sales, Editors pulled off a brilliant set of their best material, tonight was my third time seeing them and they are always a pleasure. It’s frustrating to see a band with such talent and a great back catalogue of music not pulling bigger crowds. All in we were treated to 24 songs from their back catalogue, with every song being sung along to and enjoyed by the crowd.
This evening, Editors gave a performance that far exceeded expectations. With only a couple of dates left on The Black Gold tour you really should be picking up a ticket for yourself and showing Editors some support.
Setlist:
An end has a start
Bullets
Bones
Escape the nest
Magazine
Sugar
Upside down
Violence
Frankenstein
Papillon
Ocean of night
NSBTW (acoustic)
Spiders
A ton of love
Formaldehyde
ERM=BD
All Sparks
Blood
Fingers
You are fading
Encore:
Distance
The racing rats
Munich
Smokers outside the hospital doors
Reviewer: Ceri Osborne
Photographer: Marc Osborne