A night of catharsis: IDLES unleash at The Independent

“I’m pretty sure we’re going the wrong way!” I yelled to my friend Jack, panting, as we sat on our bikes on top of an utterly ruthless San Francisco hill. After taking BART into the city, we had managed to mix up “Hayes St.” and “Hyde St.”, and found ourselves three miles in the complete opposite direction from the venue, The Independent. I can’t say I’ve ever gotten that sweaty before a show, but with all the moshing I expected to do that night, I figured it was only a matter of time, anyways. So it goes.

The headliner of the night is a Bristol-based punk rock band, IDLES. Following their critically-acclaimed debut album Brutalism (2017), the group released their second album to date, Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018) , on September 7th.

The show began with an enthusiastic performance by opener Bambara, a noise rock act out of Brooklyn. Although the crowd felt lukewarm and the music was a little repetitive, the atmosphere was still captivating; the performance conjured images of hazy, neon-lit bars. Frontman Reid Bateh moved like a man possessed, and despite his vocals often being lost in the noise, his performance was exhilarating.

After a short intermission, IDLES sauntered on stage and began their set with bombastic performances of songs such as “Mother” off of Brutalism, setting the mosh pit aflame. Joe Talbot’s vocals felt raw, cathartic, and disgustingly brutal. The often noisy, chaotic songs maintained a sense of drive and order thanks to the engine-like rhythms of the drums and guitar melodies. Their politically-driven songs touch on issues from masculinity and immigration to class divisions and sexual violence.

The band’s energy was absolutely ludicrous — Talbot’s vocal chords somehow withstood the amount of passion put in every growled word he sang, drummer Jon Beavis never missed a beat, and all three guitarists let loose. At one point during the show, crowds of people from the audience joined the band on stage, and people flew over others’ heads as crowd surfing began. It was an amazing moment seeing this level of camaraderie between a band from Bristol and a bunch of strangers from San Francisco. The last song of the night, and the oldest off the new album, “Rottweiler”, ended the show with a shout from Joe – “UNITY!!”

The show was fantastic, the band charming, and the music brutal. IDLES have exploded onto the scene in a time of political division and anger, and they’re exactly what we need.