It's not every morning that you wake up not expecting to catch a
Placebo gig, then end up catching a Placebo gig.
On Thursday, I had one of those mornings.
Placebo was in town for an invitation-only gig to commemorate the launch of the 2006 Singapore Fashion Festival. Weeks before, free invites were given out to sponsors and contest winners. Naturally, some of these made their way onto the black market, going for as much $150. My bandmate got his for $100 after much asking around.
After spending well over $1,200 in a month on Franz Ferdinand, the Bangkok 100 Rock Fest (including attendant airfare and accommodation costs), Oasis, Erlend Oye's DJ set and the Kings of Convenience, there was no way I'd cough out another $100-odd for Placebo, especially since I'd already seen their headline set in Bangkok. I'd sooner cough out blood.
How fortuitious, then, that I was in a conspirational mood today and decided to log on to MSN webmessenger while at work. Within an hour, one friend told me he had a lobang for an invite at $60, and another one told me she could get me one for free. So much for watching Mad Hot Ballroom with my girlfriend; we were now watching Placebo! And thankfully, despite being decked out in boring office attire, I happened to have a blazer and shades in my drawer. Just right for the glam-punk aesthetic of the event.
I slipped out of the office right on the knock-off hour and rushed to Ngee Ann City's Civic Plaza with my girlfriend. Throughout the journey, my phone buzzed incessantly with messages to hurry up as the queues were getting longer and longer. Thankfully, this wasn't an issue as a Poptart regular spotted me and pulled me to front of the queue where he had been planted for the past hour.
This meant that, despite the people with priority passes (stamped with the MTV logo) being allowed into the tent first, we still managed to squeeze to the front of the stage. My bandmate and his friends were already there. From our experience in Bangkok, we knew we were on the side that Brian Molko and Alex Lee (erstwhile Suede guitarist; current Placebo sessionist) would be standing. Being Suede fanatics, we shamelessly screamed Alex's name when he came out for a quick technical brief by a roadie, and he looked at us and smiled.
It took an hour before MTV VJs kicked off the show with a lame audience participation segment, and a useless admonition against flash photography during the performance. With that, Placebo finally came on. Their nearness was palpable; there was no barricade between the audience and the stage (the only other gig I've been to with this arrangement was Fischerspooner's Canal Room gig in NYC). The band launched into "Taste in Men", and it was then that the ingenuity of the event shone through: Placebo were the soundtrack for the fashion show. The image of five sharply-dressed alternative rockers pumping out a dark, confident tune on male sexuality as lean, muscular models with guitars strutted icily past them onto the catwalk was utterly striking.
What followed was a three-song volley of "Follow the Cops Back Home", "Because I Want You" and "Infra-red", all lifted from their latest album, Meds (which, incidentally, I absolutely love). It was quite a treat as two of these weren't performed in Bangkok.
Another surprise was "Without You I'm Nothing", a dark, slow-burning anthem from the 1998 album of the same name. At the sound of its suspenseful opening notes, I felt extreme pity for my drummer, as he was missing his favourite song of all time, performed by his favourite band of all time, all because he was stuck in camp for NS. The models came back out for this song in a way that complemented it perfectly: blindfolded and in dark suits. Instead of walking down the catwalk and turning back, each one remained on the catwalk, forming a line which stood ominously till the song ended. Mind-blowing.
"Song to Say Goodbye" was next, followed by the crowd-pleasing "Every You Every Me". This one got finally got the crowd moshing--the entire floor trembled, which is always a good sign at gigs. As if to play on the song's title, all the models remained on stage, slowly filling it up. And that was it. The end of the main set.
In acknowledgment of his proximity to the audience, Brian Molko leaned forward and touched a few hysterical hands. The models next to him took the piss out of that and reached out their hands in a mocking manner to those who didn't get to touch the Placebo frontman.
The band quickly returned for a two-song encore of "One of a Kind" and "The Bitter End", much to the disappointment of the people behind me who were screaming for "Special K". Nevertheless, the performances were spirited, even if the sound was murky. The playing was tight and the tone of the guitars sounded amazingly close to their recorded versions. The whole affair took about an hour, from 8.30 to 9.30pm. All the setlists within physical reach were gone before the last song ended, but I recalled from watching the roadies set up that there was one on Alex's keyboard. After most of the crowd dispersed, I called out to one of the roadies and drew a rectangle with my fingers. She looked around for a setlist, found it where I expected it and passed it to me, duct tape and all. It may lack the crumpledness, torn-off corners and footprints of a setlist from a major gig, but what the hey, it's a lovely souvenir of a fantastic time which I didn't expect when I woke up in the morning. And who could complain about that?
