Back in 2005 when I relied far too heavily on NME to help me find new bands that I never would’ve found on my own as a clueless 14-year-old, I discovered a song called “Munich” by a British rock group named Editors. Not long after I begged for a ride to my local Best Buy to immediately pick up a copy of their album The Back Room and soon found myself hooked to every track on this album. Eventually, the album led to discovery of many bands like them from both past and present.
Throughout the existence of this blog, I had yet to see the group live, with them not touring much here this decade and my college schedule never quite aligning with their tour stops here. But on May 15 the band finally made their long-awaited return to New York with a performance at Irving Plaza.
The stop came in support of their new album Violence, released this March vis PIAS Recordings. The band gave us six songs from the new record and took the rest fairly evenly from the rest of their now pretty deep catalog. While I would’ve liked to hear one or two more songs off The Back Room or An End Has a Start, it made sense that they stuck to songs that fit the new-wave inspired direction that they have recently taken. I was most taken back by how much energy and command that singer Tom Smith has on stage, fired up and getting the crowd amped up from start to finish.
Hopefully, it won’t be as long a wait for Editors to return back to us again but at least I can finally say that I got to see these guys after an insane 14-year wait.
Find a full photo gallery from their performance posted below along with the setlist.
Editors Setlist:
1. Hallelujah (So Low)
2. A Ton of Love
3. Formaldehyde
4. Darkness at the Door
5. Violence
6. No Harm
7. Blood
8. Munich
9. An End Has a Start
10. In This Light and on This Evening
11. Nothingness
12. Sugar
13. The Racing Rats
14. Ocean of Night
Encore:
15. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors (Acoustic)
16. Cold
17. Magazine
18. Papillon
19. Marching Orders
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