Editors - Parr Hall, Warrington

United Kingdom | 25 May 2007

A bat… no wait a butterfly! It’s hard to know what animals puppeteer Tom Smith is attempting to make as he thrusts his fingers into the strobe lights and throws shapes down the throbbing walls of Warrington’s Parr Hall.

“It’s great that you’ve not forgotten us”, Smith impeaches. Really? It’s my personal introduction to Editors, although I feel like I’ve dipped into their wares before. Even if Smith had battled through mists to take to the stage and confess, “Tonight Matthew, I’m going to be Ian Curtis”, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Joy Division echoes apart, I’m drawing my own song comparisons from Arcade Fire and U2 to Echo and the Bunnymen, The Chameleons and even The Beach Boys, all from my internal I-Pod as I soak up the set.  Question begs though… is it true that talent borrows while genius steals?  If the audience’s reaction is taken as a barometer then vocalist/guitarist/pianist Smith, guitarist Chris Urbanowicz, drummer Ed Lay and bass player Russell Leetch are wanted felons.

Editors are like a musical Victor Frankenstein.  The band is rattling the cemetery gates of the hallowed greats and hastily tacking together a commercial monster that lurches forth to seize success.  Yet there is no doubting the formidable musicianship at the helm. The driving Germanic beats seep through the pounding floorboards, which annoyingly infects the knees and forces you to pledge allegiance, raise your right arm obediently and puncture the ceiling.

They plunder through the treasures of their 2005 debut ’The Back Room’, unearthing seven of the 11 songs to a storm of appreciation. ‘Bullets’ and ‘Blood’ are early delicacies followed by a course of ‘Lights’, ‘All Sparks’ and ‘Fall’. Barbed, bitter and biting, the tracks resonate into a wall of sound which playfully dances to a squintingly-good light show.  They sign off their debut collection with ‘Munich’ which reaches out to the continent, lassoing the Aryan spirit and winching it back to Warrington for 10 elongated heart-stopping minutes.

But of course this is the ’An End Has a Start’ tour and there was a new album to plug, hence the roar of appreciation which greets ’Bones’ - the opening song of the night.  Of the rest, ’The Racing Rats’ was a personal favourite but ’Escape The West’ and ’Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’ suggest that the music press will not need untangle their knickers just yet.

Closing with ’Fingers In Factories’, Smith urges us all to lift the roof off and although there appeared to be no major architectural damage when I left, the pigeons that had habitually gathered had taken flight…

Michelle Corbett