Concert Review: Editors Show Flaws Are Power At Irving Plaza
Editors’ played to Millennials’ inner teens across the Irving Plaza Land. Blending their indie rock with post-punk sensibilities, the night felt like a reliving of all the “angsty” moments you had growing up that you thought stayed in high-school. Turns out the most angsty thing you can do is become an adult. Yet, to Editors, that angst is the key to finding your power.
Hitting the music sphere in the early 2000’s, Editors have always carried a duality in their lyrical swords/ verses that match well with people’s inner turmoil. On one hand, we really do believe “Darkness”, “Blood”, “Nothingness”, and “Violence”, all titles of their songs, are the best we are going to get out of life. Yet, humans do sing a “Hallelujah (So Low) and pray for a “Ton of Love” and “Sugar”. As they scoped “newbies” and “oldies” from their catalogue, their performance expressed that getting older only means getting wiser because you learn to get better at feeling bad.
Returning to the U.S after 8 years, the love was mutual between New Yorkers and Editors. They were feeling electric at selling out one of the music capitals of the world. By now, the English band understands you have to be or have the makings of an international star to get to NYC, and in “Munich”, “An End Has A Start”, and“ Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors”, Tom Smith’s voice frolicked with a folksy emotionality that bounces off Editors’ rocking chords chords and drums. He stretches his body and range as if to push out and elongate that being mistaken is apart of getting enlightened.
From Frightened Rabbit to The National, not many artists/bands have a guiding voice that can stand out amongst any pulsing, prowling melody as a permission slip for pain. Smith can turn flaws into what they have always been: a given. He makes suffering feel like the excess baggage you have to carry in order to get on “the flight” to somewhere better. As people sang along to Editors’ songs, that type of mentality moved me with its positivism. For a band with songs such as “The Racing Rats” and “Marching Orders”, they may sing to the mindlessness and loneliness of feeling/ being less, but they are certainly mindful in their delivery. For More Information on Editors Click Here.
