It's in the special way we fuck...

When I was younger, Placebo was just this band everyone talked about in bits. I had never heard their music until I was about 17 when my friend loaned me his copy of Meds. It was, quite simply, amazing, but I only started listening to it compulsively in my first year of uni. It was on my ipod for months. It always reminds me Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals.

Anyway, I went to see Placebo on Monday and I have to say, it's been ages since I've been in a mosh pit. I actually thought to myself, "you are too old for a mosh pit." But then again, it's not like I've been in heaps of mosh pits before. I've only been in one raging one (at Good Charlotte, when I was 15). Oh wait that is not true. I was in the mosh pit at Escape the Fate. Let's not go there, please.

I just want to add that I don't mind being in the mosh pit, but I do prefer being at the back where there is a better view and more room to breathe in. I was actually really close to the front at the start of the concert and as usual, I was pushed back. I don't mind that too much. What I do mind is when someone in the mosh decides it's all right to do a fart in such a confined area. It was disgusting and people around me were shouting, "STOP FARTING!".Then there was this woman who smuggled in a goon bag. That was genius. Utter genius. I'm not going to write how she did it but it is awesome. It was like when NWA sang Fuck the Police.



The thing about Placebo is that they are intoxicating. Their songs reel you in, if not for the melody then for the lyrics. Everything is very intense, sort of almost abstract in a way and just emotionally-charged. The song 'Drag' is so self-loathing, angry and desperate. "Pierrot the Clown" evokes such isolation and sadness. The thing I love most about Placebo's music is that it's so honest and elicits incredible imagery.







That night, Stefan Olsdal, a tall and willowy man, donned a silver suit that looked like it was made out of aluminum. He looked like some kind of dapper spaceman. If space men had office jobs, they would wear what Stefan wore.



Brian Molko, this beautiful, androgynous man. There's no other word to describe him. He is this hauntingly beautiful man, with a voice that is indescribable, but not because it's a beautiful voice. It's a voice that is both powerful and vulnerable. It's somewhat croaky but each small croak joins together with the other croaks to melt into one smooth note. It's so hard to describe. Brian simply wore a t shirt and a vest, both in dark grays, bordering black. It was so hard to see the band but every time I saw Brian, it was like I was breaking the surface of this mosh pit sea, this suffocating, sweaty, putrid-smelling sea and grabbing hold of air. To see Placebo was to breathe. It was so intense.



By the end of the night, my t shirt was drenched, my neck was aching, my ears ringing, my mouth dry. It was amazing.