Placebo @ KL Live

By Ben Liew  •  in Reports
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If you were young and confused in the 90s, there’s a high chance Placebo were your Joy Division, David Bowie and friend all rolled into one. A hard rocking sexually-liberal band that exuded cool gloom, it’s hard to imagine that it was more than 10 years ago. Not looking a day older nor sounding the role, the band rocked KL Live recently and left more than a few eyebrows raised.

Image Fatboys Event

The crowd filled up every inch of the venue by 8pm and after a short set that sounded like Brian Molko’s Ipod playlist, TAG resided and gave way to the main act. Searing the audience with the first single off their current album ‘For What It’s Worth’, the audience went hysteric at the sight of Brian, Stefan and Steve who were backed by 3 more touring-musicians.

Clearly the tallest member Stefan was also the baldest. However what got our goat was the X-mark duct-taped on the butt of his shinny metallic sliver pants. What looked like a silent protest against negativity towards homosexuals came off halfway through the show and let us wandering if it was a practical joke.

Those expecting more of Placebo’s old stuff were left a little disappointed as they never did get around to ‘Pure Morning’ and ‘Nancy Boy’. But as Brian explained in the pre-show interview, “Our most popular and best-selling singles ever were ‘Pure Morning’ and ‘Nancy Boy’; 2 songs which we don’t play live anymore because we just don’t like them anymore. But if I wanted to be a careerist, we could have just made a bunch of records that sounded like those 2 songs which were our biggest hits, but we would be bored senseless doing that!” And we wouldn’t want Molko to pull a Gallagher.

However we were more than melancholic to hear ‘Every You And Every Me’, ‘Special K’ and ‘Devil In The Details’. ‘Meds’ was a specially a highlight and even cured the only downer of the night – no alcohol on the ground floor. We heard that there was booze at the RM158 ticket area above though. Weird.

The quality of sound was good further to the front of the stage but completely horrendous way at the back. But that wasn’t a problem with all the bodies squashing up front. We just wished they had booked a bigger venue. Placebo was after all a friend indeed.

Before coming back for an encore, a naked dancer was projected on the stage screens. Placebo closed with ‘Bright Lights’, Infra Red’ and ‘Taste in Men’. And with a final old skool bow, they were gone. No big rockstar kissoffs. No smashing of equipment and instruments. Just a playful shove by Brian at Steve. Looks like we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed ourselves. J

Placebo rocked KL Live on Tuesday 16 March 2010. Sweat, tears and smears in our gallery.