The Libertines at hyde park: these are the good old days?
Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated and disbelieved gigs of late hyde park was exactly what any Libertines fan expected; exquisite carnage and electrifying anarchy.
The boys in the band put on a firecracker of a show whose spark triggered an adulterated inferno. Any bitters whispers of the comeback being money orientated and therefore lacking true passion were well and truly cast aside, in the wake of the raw emotion, energy and friendship that held that stage together.
There’s a lot to be said about a band who can unsuspectingly whip a crowd into a delay tower clambering, barrier hurdling, security battling beast that caused the gig to stop three whole times. You know that things are a bit awry when you’ve got Pete Doherty himself bemusedly pleading with a crowd to take safety precautions…
Gary Powell perplexedly claiming “we love you, but you guys have got to look out for each other!” to the crowd, after the momentous crowd crush, was a personal highlight of mine.
None the less, the content of the gig itself more than sufficed for the see sawing, stopping and starting, with the boys really coming into their own further down the set list.
Highlights were the insurmountable, ironic beauty of Carl singing the chorus of Albion, dusting Love is on the dole off the shelf and sending it out with a clatter and the sheer melodic chills that Music When The Lights Go Out incur.
Doherty and Barat compensate for their lack of a stereotypically pitch perfect voice with a charisma and chemistry that is so much more captivating to watch for any greedy voyeur desperate for more, more, more.
The Libertines were a united front, with Pete and Carl once again iconically sharing a mic in that familiar gesture of love that’s enough to send chills caressing down any fans spine. As for their shared recital of suicide in the trenches, I’m ashamed to admit that I had tears in my eyes and a lump the size of a golf ball in my throat by that stage! And any band whose essence as well as music can evoke that level of emotion in a fan, really does deserve a whole lot of credit.
Tunes such as Don’t Look back into the sun, what a waster and I get along were shrouded in a golden nostalgia, like looking back on your childhood best friend with a knowing smile.
Although The Libertines were out of their depth at such a giant venue, they more than delivered what every person in that crowd wanted; a true comeback, as opposed to the fleeting 2010 jack-in-the-box reunion.
It was all there, the explosive friendship of Pete and Carl and the solidarity of the foursome in general, with them linking arms to perform the hokey cokey at one stage in a school boy esque moment of light heartedness.
Overall, the greatest thing that I took away from this gig was the smug feeling that they were truly back, with all the chaos that it entails. One thing I noticed throughout the gig was their nerves ebbing away, and the consensus of the band slowly starting to rise to the fore.
My only real fault with the show was the gaping hole were What Became Of The Likely Lads and The Good Old Days rightly should have been.
With my ticket for Ally Pally booked and an alleged third album on the cards, let’s see what the future holds for The Libertines. With so much notoriety and past success already achieved, is there any further distance for the albion sail?
We’ll soon see.
boundforsound 