Editors at the Roundhouse

It might not be their most popular or successful record to date, but with the release of The Weight of Your Love, Editors reached that back-to-basics phase that every big band goes through at some point in their career.

The dark and dry Sugar opens the concert, the front row covered with the flags of fans coming from all over Europe for the final leg of their worldwide tour. What an appropriate venue to bring it to an end: essential but sophisticated, the Roundhouse represents where the Birmingham rockers are right now.

It has been said that Editors lost it a bit with In This Light and on This Evening – this is a club the author of this article is proudly not part of – and the setlist tonight suffers from that critique. Halfway through the show, there have been moments of pure excitement with Munich and The Racing Rats, but one can’t help but wonder what happened to those marvellous sounds that Flood (producer) brought to this band, who now risk becoming the copy of themselves.

The quality of Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool, Bricks and Mortar and In This Light and on This Evening is undeniable once they finally get to be played. Equally undeniable are the consequences of losing genius guitarist and synth player Chris Urbanowicz – but that’s something fans are beginning to digest.

The amazing All Sparks and Bones sets the bar pretty high, but some of the recent songs don’t disappoint when played in between those classics.

A Ton of Love is the mother of all rock songs and hardly anyone resists singing “desire, desire”. That’s a hell of single. The same goes with Nothing, which is amusing on record with heartfelt strings but becomes huge on stage when played by the full band. Do they regret the maybe-too-mellow studio version? Judging by the way they bounce, fans seem to. And judging by the inspired look of Tom Smith as he sings “I’ve got nothing left”, bent on the top of his piano, maybe he does too.

Editors are a band standing firmly on their own two feet: they have hits, classics, romantic dark moments and more experimental tracks. Their show is solid and it leaves you with something many acts are still trying to achieve: that feeling of depth and substance, heightening your awareness that what you are experiencing is authentically good.

Filippo L’Astorina, the Editor

For further information about Editors and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Honesty here: