Placebo

The first words Brian Molko addresses to the crowd on this warm early-July evening are: we are Placebo, and we are a European band. Words laden with meaning in a post-Brexit landscape that's bringing England to its knees and making life especially complicated for musicians, particularly when they need to cross to our side of the Channel. Words spoken the day after the UK general election, which delivered a decisive win for the Labour Party, back in government after a full 14 years – an unmistakable sign of the discontent currently spreading across the Kingdom of Charles III. But this isn't the only significant statement Placebo make tonight.

Just before the show starts, the big screens display a message from the band asking fans not to spend the concert filming or taking photos on their phones. The group says they want to build a connection with the audience, communicating emotions through the songs, and ask the crowd to enjoy, unfiltered, a moment that can never happen in quite the same way again. The message is also spread via flyers posted along the path leading to the concert area, and through an audio recording in Molko's own voice played right before the set begins. The fans complied, and it really was wonderful to experience a show the old-fashioned way, without all those raised arms trying to capture the moment instead of actually living it in real time.

When Placebo take the stage, just minutes before 10pm, Brian Molko looks rejuvenated compared to performances from five or ten years ago, a period that clearly took a visible toll on the band. Long hair, moustache, and several pounds lighter, Brian today seems to have turned back into a young man, carrying a renewed authority at the helm of a band that has just crossed the thirty-year mark. They're back in the capital, part of the Rock In Roma 2024 lineup, to take on the main arena at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, just as they did in the summer of 2014, presenting a genuinely interesting setlist built to promote songs from the recent "Never Let Me Go". It's a strong record, far more convincing than its predecessors "Loud Like Love" and "Battle For The Sun", which are not by chance gradually disappearing from a setlist that instead finds new life in the freshest material.

What doesn't disappear – obviously – is most of the great classics, evergreens that have by now risen to the status of true generational anthems, such as "Slave To The Wage", "Song To Say Goodbye" and "The Bitter End", which, played in sequence toward the end of the show, send the crowd into raptures.

But this tour is also an opportunity to dust off a few songs that have been played live less often in recent years, in particular "Bionic", pulled from the debut album and still regarded as one of the most original compositions Placebo have ever written, with its oblique sounds and subtle dissonances that, early in their career, led audiences and critics alike to see them as a light version of Sonic Youth.

Stefan Olsdal (who, besides bass, also plays guitar or piano on some tracks) remains the only other full (and original) member of Placebo, now officially a duo, backed live by a thoroughly accomplished backing band; special mention goes to Angela Chan, who enriches the sound with synth, violin and backing vocals, and Nick Gavrilovic, on guitar, supporting the excellent work of frontman Brian Molko.

The energy of "Every You Every Me" and the alt-pop spell of "Too Many Friends" are two more valuable ingredients in a stylistic mix unspooled right up to the end of the first part of the set, closed out with "Nancy Boy", confirming the enduring importance still granted to their earliest work.

A few minutes' break, and the band returns to the stage for two more songs, "Infra-Red", from "Meds", and "Running Up That Hill", the celebrated Kate Bush cover recorded by Placebo well before its return to prominence, driven by its inclusion in the TV series "Stranger Things". A few minutes of instrumental noise coda follow, picking up the theme of "Evil Dildo", the sonic hidden track from "Without You I'm Nothing", during which the band experiments with effects pedals until the feedback fades away beneath the audience's enthusiastic applause.

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