Editors - Popscene - San Francisco, CA: 1/19/2006
Posted by Dave Schilling on 01.30.2006
The popular UK mope rockers hit the Bay Area during their first U.S. tour
The career of the band Editors is shaping up to be one of those classic "love them or hate them" sorts of stories. In this familiar tale, a band develops a fervent, obsessive following within the outer reaches of a particular scene, only to be derided by others just as they begin to make their ascent up the pop music mountain. Bands that are so polarizing tend to be so for a very specific reason.
In the case of Editors, the band, at first glance appears to be yet another pallid Joy Division knockoff. Like Paul Banks of Interpol before him, Editors lead singer Tom Smith affects the distinct moan of the late Ian Curtis, either by design or by accident. The propulsive, guiding drum beats of Ed Lay owes itself to Stephen Morris's transcendent work on Unknown Pleasures Their album cover even showcases the same sort of stark, black and white photography that was so indicative of the Joy Division image.
Their performance at the influential San Francisco indie nightclub, Popscene, revealed something far more beguiling though. These guys want to be rock stars. Badly. This is not the raw, haunting stage shows of Joy Division. Rather, this is a band playing dance music that happens to sound a lot like a slew of other bands. The sound is poppy, eminently danceable, and the performance is smooth around the edges rather than immediate. It's an interesting mix, a combination of arena rock clichés and dark imagery that is also starting to take hold in the insufferable emo scene.
On their current single, "Blood" (the third to be released and a chart topper in the UK), they play this anthemic piece like U2 would belt out "Vertigo." They aren't a wildly enthusiastic group like the last band I saw at Popscene, the garagey trio, The Subways. They are, though, very slick in a way that mirrors that U2/Coldplay safeness that people in elitist music circles tend to loathe. Tom Smith may sound like Ian Curtis, but he certainly doesn't perform like him. He's earnest in a mildly endearing way, but totally lacking in the sort of reckless stage presence that can either make you a star or make you look totally retarded (which, in Curtis's case, could both be said with equal accuracy). That's not to say that Editors won't ever be stars. They've made a lot of the right choices during their debut tour in the States.
Popscene was the perfect venue for Editors to introduce their brand of post-punkery to the West Coast. The club, entering its 10th year operating out of the venue at 330 Ritch Street, is well-known in the area and within the music industry as a gig that breaks bands. Popscene owner/operator and Live105 music director Aaron Axelson has been committed to running the club as a place for emerging indie artists to play in front of a (mostly) receptive, youthful audience of scenesters who will go out and spread the word on a band they just discovered in between spins of "Dare" on the dance floor. He also hosts an excellent 3 hour showcase of indie and local artists on Live105, "Soundcheck," which has given Editors a radio platform they likely wouldn't get on lesser stations in California (I'm looking at YOU K-Rock…).
In many ways, Editors played like they were auditioning. They played a short mini-set of 5 songs, all of them easily the highlights of The Back Room. In particular, another U2-esque anthem, "Bullets," which ended the show, showcased their attempts to wow the crowd with the stomping beat and repetitive admonition, "you don't need this disease," one of the more flaccid lyrics in their book. It strikes me as odd to mix images like that. If you title a song "Bullets," why start opining about disease?
Nevertheless, it's a fine song, and a wise choice to walk off on. I pretty much expected them to close with "Blood," as that's what is getting airplay here, but perhaps they didn't get the memo. Of course, who am I to argue about a band playing their best song last, regardless of airplay? With any luck, these cats will be getting more airplay in the months to come, but the major flaw in this master plan of world domination could prevent that from ever happening.
2006 is shaping up to be a major year for Editors. With their record, The Back Room finally on its way to U.S. shores via Kitchenware Records and the full, enthusiastic support of Axelson, they're bound to continue to polarize the indie music audience. What they need to do, and didn't necessarily show me at Popscene in their set, is differentiate themselves from the growing pack of British post-punk revivalists.
It is far too easy to lump them in with bands like Interpol, Maximo Park, and the loathsome, Fred Durst-supported She Wants Revenge. It's too easy to spot their reliance on Joy Division or Echo & The Bunnymen mimicry. The question that should be asked of Editors is simple: Who are you? Why are you the next big thing and not Arctic Monkeys, another UK band that is asserting itself on the charts across the ocean? Until they can answer that particular question, they will remain the sort of band that is loved by a small contingent of ardent supporters in the U.S., hated by the overly pretentious, but unable to achieve any significant crossover success.
The 411: Editors combines balladry and anthemic songwriting with the ever more ubiquitous Joy Division “Sound-alike Contest” vibe. It’s not necessarily groundbreaking stuff, and their stage show is a tad undercooked, but it could be much, much worse. They could be She Wants Revenge.
