All bark and no bite: punk’s biggest posers eviscerate Nick Clegg
IDLES are an interesting prospect in 2024. Their explosion onto the burgeoning post-punk scene was one of vital urgency. Back-to-back albums in the shape of 2017’s Brutalism and 2018’s Joy As An Act Of Resistance were colossal eruptions of anti-establishment rage, brilliantly encapsulating the ‘fuck the Tories’ anger that was so prevalent in the alternative scene. Three albums later, it feels like nothing much has changed.
Oxford’s Willie J Healey provides support, aptly hyping the growing crowd with a selection of cuts from across his career before IDLES’ Joe Talbot strides out in a WJH tee, donning his support for the opening act. The rest of the band follow, slowly building ‘IDEA 01’ – the opening track from new album TANGK – into the brilliantly chaotic ‘Colossus’.
‘Gift Horse’, ‘Mr Motivator’ and ‘Mother’ all follow suit, with ‘Gift Horse’ seeing IDLES encourage a “fuck the king!” chant and ‘Mother’ providing various anti-tory shouts. They’re good messages, but a rallying cry of “fuck the Tories” seems toothless and old hat: the Conservative Party hasn’t been in power for almost half a year and things have changed. Sure, they were bad people doing bad things, but calling them out now is totally redundant. There is a complete and utter failure to hold truth to power in a meaningful way – IDLES go on to call out Nick Clegg and label him a fascist: the man lost his seat in 2017, for goodness sake.
Again, there are positive messages throughout with calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and a couple of “viva viva Palastina” shouts, but this does not feel as urgent as it should. No doubt IDLES do care about the plight of the Palestinians, but there is zero mention of the Labour Party, Kier Starmer or David Lammy – the British individuals who are actively aiding and abetting the butchery of Gaza. It’s all well and good to be a political band, but if you’re more comfortable calling out Nick Clegg in 2024 than anyone remotely close to power, the people who have Palestinian blood on their hands, then maybe it’s time to pack it in.
Punk is supposed to challenge and nothing about tonight feels challenging. IDLES have distanced themselves from being labelled a ‘punk band’, but their highly politicised early work and industrial post-Brexit sound has them wedded to that tag, whether they like it or not. The Nick Clegg moment sticks in the craw somewhat and the rest of the show is impacted: can you sing a song like ‘Divide & Conquer’, tearing apart the right wing’s decimation of the NHS whilst simultaneously, consistently failing to address the perpetual right-wing pandering happening in the Labour party right now? Have IDLES lost their bottle? Did they ever have any to begin with?
It’s indisputable that IDLES are vastly different people now than they were in 2017, aren’t we all, but the dilution of their message has retrospectively made it feel entirely performative. This lingering feeling makes the rest of the show feel stale and fake. IDLES punctuating ‘Love Song’ with ‘All I Want For Christmas’, ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘This Charming Man’ leans closer to tedious than it does to charming.
IDLES have got musicality on their side, for the most part, and – to their credit – the band sounds huge. John Beavis, as always, is a sensation behind the kit and the rest of the lineup (minus Adam ‘Dev’ Devonshire through illness) are on good form. You can’t dispute that their sound is enormous, it’s their inconsistent and downright lazy political messaging that lets them down.
featured image: Daniel Topete
