Placebo: Wembley Arena, December 9th 2006. (Placebo - Live)

Member Name: Ling_Woo

Product:	Placebo - Live
Date:	26/07/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One of the best nights of my life which I will never forget.

Disadvantages: None, although I guess Stefan's guitar breaking wasn't good.

Placebo: Wembley Arena, December 9th 2006.

Arriving at the arena at 7pm, security checked our tickets and we found our seats, and we had a rather decent view of the stage.
The first support band to kick off the show at 7.30 were the Howling Bells, a female fronted band. This band didn't do much for me, although they weren't that bad. We got through 7 songs before they finally got off the stage, to make way for the final support band...
This band were called the Archie Bronson Outfit, and I found this band to be really awful, all 7 or 8 songs were a total assault on the ears and I had to laugh when my friend who came with me to the event fell asleep at the third song.

After a long interval of setting up on the stage which seemed like forever, the lights went down at 9.30.
The crowed cheered as Stefan ran across the stage and they started to play. The legend that is Brian Molko then strolled onstage and the crowd pretty much gave him a standing ovation, he greeted the audience with his usual trademark line "we are the ladies and gentlemen of Placebo".

Placebo kicked off the set with 'Infra-Red', which was a single from the last album Meds, then followed with two other singles from Meds, 'Meds' and 'Because I Want You', all three of these were highly impressive performances.
Highlight performances of the night for me were 'Soulmates' (a harder, more alternative version of 'Sleeping With Ghosts'), 'I Know' which gave a totally new spin on the song, Brian sung it so powerfully and it totally blew me away, 'Blind' because I find the chrous usually grates on me on the recorded version, but I could not pick one single fault with this performance, their cover of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' was also stunning. I found their performance of 'Every You Every Me' a bit underwhelming to be honest, but it got the crowd motivated and they loved it.

As the intro riffs of 'The Bitter End' kicked in, everyone who was seated in the arena stood up to get ready, this was the song that really drove the whole arena wild, everyone was jumping and dancing around to it (me included), and their performance of 'Special K' was packed to the brim with energy, and it also worked as well to get the audience moving along to it.

The concert was almost drawing to a close, the second to last song to be played was 'Taste In Men', from what I could gather poor Stefan's guitar broke during this performance, bless him. The boys drew the concert to a close with 'Twenty Years', which interestingly became a full on rocky number towards the end of the track, which was interesting given the original is a ballad. The 'ladies and gentlemen of Placebo' thanked the audience towards the end and briefly had some banter with the crowd, before walking offstage. We left the arena just after 11pm.

All in all, this concert was everything I hoped for and more, it was truly worth every penny. Brian's voice is truly astounding, but nothing compares to hearing it live, it really shone. My mind was blown by the concert, my friend who came with me said he was really impressed, that he enjoyed himself and it was better than he thought it would be, and every single person in the building had a good time. I was a little surprised they missed out 'Nancy Boy' and 'Pure Morning', and was hoping they would play 'Bruise Pristine', 'You Don't Care About Us', 'This Picture' and 'Post Blue', but the sheer brilliance of this concert meant it didn't matter to me.

After this concert, it's plain to see why Placebo are my favourite band, and it's safe to say they have cemented a life-long fan in me. I will 100% be seeing them again if and when I get the chance, and I'd urge ANYONE to do the same, you will not be disappointed.

PS, as a sidenote, Stefan looks so sexy in the flesh.

Here are all the songs they played, some of it might be in the wrong order but who cares:

Infra-Red
Meds
Drag
Because I Want You
I Know
Bionic
Without You I'm Nothing
Special Needs
Running Up That Hill
Every You Every Me
Follow The Cops Back Home
Bionic
Soulmates
Space Monkey
Blind
Song To Say Goodbye
One Of A Kind
The Bitter End
Special K
Taste In Men
Twenty Years

Summary: The first time I saw them live, and it was worth it. I will see them countless times again.