Placebo
at The Whisky, L.A.12-13-98
Story by Ralph Bennett
Photos by Karena Bernard
OK...missed the first song because those dickheads at The
Whisky made Placebo go on at 9:30. Jokers. Brian seemed annoyed
at something, but as the show progressed he lightened up...smoking cigs and doing
his best Marlena Dietrich impression for the whole of "My Sweet Prince"
as looming, tight red dress wearing bassist, Stefan, played one of the thousand
Fender Jazzmasters Brian had brought along to the ultra trendy ..."Why
am I here?/Is this band good?/Isn't that a GIRL?/I'm supposed to like this...right?" ...Sold-Out-Hell.
Just one
of the crappy scenes in L.A., "babe".
They looked
fantasic, as the arena sized P.A. shook to the strains of "Scared Of Girls"
and "Nancyboy", when Brian turned around and tried keeping Steve's tempo
at pace with the chorus before, next time around, giving up.
Slower
numbers that fall short on the CD were given the full effect in the live setting.
The best were "Without You...", "The Crawl" and a stripped, fucked and laid to bed version of "Teenage Angst"
The
middle through the end of the show was the best, however. Slower numbers that fall
short on the CD were given the full effect in the live setting. The best were "Without
You...", "The Crawl" and a stripped, fucked and laid to bed version
of "Teenage Angst" that drew cheers from myself and the other four people
who knew the tune.
The
most fun moment was when Miss Molko asked if we liked Stefan's dress, which prompted
some retarded freak to yell, "Yeah! Take it off!". After the perfect pause
Brian came back to the mic and sneered, "You take it off first, BUDDY",
after which he turned to change guitars...again.
My
only dissapointment occured during the final moments following the third encore,
when Brian again switched his guitar for a bass and dove into a lovely feedback finale
to "Evil Dildo". Due to high volume screams as well as fat-comped-sows
in bad jeans asking, "So, are they from here?", I couldn't hear exactly
what Brian said as a goodbye to L.A. I do think it was, "We love you",
but whatever he said in the seconds before seemed much more sincere. I don't think
Placebo liked Los Angeles very much. Ha. Who knew..? Who cares, because THIS part
of L.A. fucking LOVES Placebo.
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