Today we celebrate the ANNIVERSARY of the “MTV Unplugged” album. It was released as CD and DVD five years ago on November 27th 2015. The concert was recorded on 19th of August that year at The London Studios in Waterloo, Central London. Placebo manager Alex Weston and Angus Blue of the band's management Riverman were both executive producers of the show.
The “Unplugged” concert consisted of 17 songs. Two guest vocalists had an appearance on stage: singer-songwriter Majke Voss Romme of Broken Twin sang “Every you Every me” with the band and Joan Wasser aka Joan As Police Woman “Protect me from what I want”.
The
event started later than scheduled and we were kept waiting outside
in the cold wind, but, hey, who cares about temperature when you are
about to see such a band?!
People invited by the band, Helena Berg and Cody Molko included, got inside first, of course, plus a number of people, mainly from Russia I guessed: maybe the latter belong to a Fan Club or run some specific blog on Placebo.
After about an hour we got in and were ordered for the hundredth time to turn off all our devices. Once inside, temperature wasn’t any higher: in fact the studio was a freezer. But, again, who cares?!
The audience was asked to sit down behind a group of seats right in front of the stage: these were already taken by the band’s guests. Seats sold by Crowdsurge were on the sides and behind other reserved seats in the central stalls area.
The stage was surrounded by a transparent veil that formed a sort of giant cube. Right before the show started, we were told to shut down phones, tablets and cameras.
People invited by the band, Helena Berg and Cody Molko included, got inside first, of course, plus a number of people, mainly from Russia I guessed: maybe the latter belong to a Fan Club or run some specific blog on Placebo.
After about an hour we got in and were ordered for the hundredth time to turn off all our devices. Once inside, temperature wasn’t any higher: in fact the studio was a freezer. But, again, who cares?!
The audience was asked to sit down behind a group of seats right in front of the stage: these were already taken by the band’s guests. Seats sold by Crowdsurge were on the sides and behind other reserved seats in the central stalls area.
The stage was surrounded by a transparent veil that formed a sort of giant cube. Right before the show started, we were told to shut down phones, tablets and cameras.
Brian wore a light make-up: foundation, black eye-pencil and a some grey eye-shadow (at least this was what I could sea from where I was sitting). His clothes were elegant and minimal: black trousers and black shirt. He had his hair trimmed, so it was a bit shorter than the last gig and he looked younger and sweeter: let’s say that the Severus Snape’s look was much less perceivable!
Stefan was impeccable as usual: his dark grey suit made his height and his slim silhouette really charming. He could have been a model! We already know his haircut (a sort of male pixiecut) seen in the previous gigs.
Matt was lightheartedly casual in his white t-shirt, while Fiona-the-busy-bee had a vintage updo that really suited her. Her half-ponytail was a bit backcombed. Very elegant.
Brian looked really relaxed, but I think he had a hurricane in his mind: he had to play, sing, entertain, do all the talking, as Stefan wouldn’t say a single word apart from “Thank you”, and get synchronised with the process of filming, which had been clearly organised before, but had to be rearranged. Nevertheless, he was cheerful and made us laugh more than a couple of times. Post Blue was played with an instrument called the Qanun, but the very moment Stefan pulled two strings Brian went “Ha! It seems the qanun is out of tune!” He sounded so funny!!! You won’t see that in the dvd!
Cover
moment: Where is my mind. What can I say? They have played it before
and every time the emotion is almost overwhelming, but you’ll see:
this time the voice is so perfect, so in tune, full, it doesn’t get
lost in the open space of festival stage. It’s like it should be.
They repeated it twice and they did the same for Jackie, Loud Like
Love and the two songs sung with the guest artists. Brian was pretty
open about having forgotten a couple of lines in LLL and Where is my
mind. I think he was surprised to see how we wouldn’t mind
listening to same song as many times as he wanted us to! Before
playing “Where is my mind” for the second time he said “You
must like the song!”. No! We like the BAND!!!!
Sweetest
moments: Brian smiling at his song as he stepped on stage; Cody
almost jumping on his chair during Loud like love.
(Review by Laura Meneghetti)
(Review by Laura Meneghetti)
Photo credits: Screenshots from the DVD, cover of the album, edit by me
Post by Silke
