Placebo Gig Review and Interview with Steve Forrest

Earlier this year, a fresh looking, fresh sounding Placebo returned to the charts with their first album since 2006′s Meds. Battle For the Sun was critically well received and a hit with fans, while also drawing in new listeners. One of the reasons Placebo may have a fresh sound is the introduction of their newest member, Steve Forrest.

Last week before the final gig of their current tour, I spoke to Steve and asked him how he felt about joining an established band who had been playing together for over 15 years.

The pressure to sort of perform like a 15 year professionally veteran is so intense that you don’t have time to make mistakes. It’s heads down and get focussed, because I haven’t been performing professionally for 15 years. I got everything in the world to lose.

He needn’t have worried. The gig opened with For What It’s Worth and his energy and mania on the drums seemed to drive new life into Molko and Olsdal. You see Steve Forrest is a mere 23 years of age, compared with Brian Molko at 37 and Stefan Olsdal at 35. He was bound to introduce new vigour to the group.

I asked Steve if he felt he was the happy-happy-joy-joy of Placebo (yes, those are the words I used).

Ha. I used to be moreso, I used to be bouncing off the walls - “Oh yay, we’re here, we’re here, we’re here”. I’m still very positive obviously, but it’s been such a heavy year, we’ve been touring straight since May 28^th. I’m just tired man. I’m still fairly positive and energetic. It’s my general nature. It’s died down a little bit in a good way. I came in as this really green kid. I had experience of touring and of the music industry but as a small to medium sized band. Being shoved straight up to the top, you have to sort of get your giddiness out.

The band were brave with their current tour. They all but abandoned their 90′s fan favourites, keeping only Every Me and Every You, choosing instead to concentrate on their more recent offerings, particularly from the Battle For the Sun album. This certainly paid off when fan reaction to the title track, Battle for the Sun, The Never Ending Why and The Devil in the Details proved the band had gotten it right.

I was in the pit for the gig and I was surrounded by teens. For a band who seemed to have their hayday in the 90′s, they had a very young following. But scattered throughout was a number of long term die-hard fans. One of which was my ex-girlfriend, who first introduced me to Placebo 13 years ago. When I told her I was going to be talking with Steve Forrest, she described him as the “infiltrator”.

Reactions like that are few and far between now, but I don’t care either way. There have been some fans who have come up to me and said that, not in a lighthearted way, and most of the time I don’t say anything back to them. They have no idea what actually went on. But there was one time I wasn’t in the mood for it and they came up saying “How does it feel to be the one who ruined all this?” I said, “First of all, you have no idea the backstory of it, and second of all, don’t come up yelling about something you do have any clue about. They needed a drummer, I needed a band – bottom line. If you really have a problem with it, why are you at this fucking show, why are you buying the fucking album, you can fuck off if you don’t like the new sound, if you don’t like the new me, whatever you don’t like, fuck off. I’m not going to apologise to you.” And then they see me play and realise “he’s not a twat, he’s a nice guy that appreciates his position and is a hard worker. Watch me play, and then after watching me play, then fair enough, at least you hjave sometuihg to go off at.

Steve is no novice - he previously played in the band Evaline and is also working on a side project E Florentino. I asked how he ended up drumming with Placebo.

We used to open for them when they came to the united states. Me and Evaline parted ways and then later in 2007 when I found out that Steve Hewitt had left, I got in contact with them and sent them my video resume and when they saw that they remembered me from the previous year. Brian called me and said do you want to come to London in January to just sort of jam and hang out. I learned all 5 records in two months and went there and was ready to play the old material and they said they wanted to work on the new stuff - “We want you to write the album with us and here’s some ideas we’ve been having”.

So, he played a far larger part than just being a hired drummer. He contributed heavily on a number of tracks, and was co-writers on a few tracks too. The title track is one of my favourite Placebo tracks in years.

That’s funny – it’s one of the songs we write from scratch, all three of us. There’s a couple of tracks on the album, Battle for the Sun, Speak in Tongues and Bright Lights, another one called Unisex which is a bonus song.

With only a few missteps towards the end, rescued by a solid encore, Placebo’s Olympia gig was exciting and visceral. Molko was on top form, Olsdal played with the crowd and Forrest just let loose. A great gig and for the firs time since the 90s, I’m extremely excited to hear what Placebo do next.

For more information on the band, check out their website.

Setlist - The Olympia Theatre Dublin - December 16th 2009

1. For What It’s Worth
2. Ashtray Heart
3. Battle For The Sun
4. Soulmates
5. Speak In Tongues
6. Follow The Cops Back Home
7. Every You Every Me
8. Special Needs
9. Breathe Underwater
10. Julien
11. The Never-Ending Why
12. Blind
13. Devil In The Details
14. Meds
15. Song To Say Goodbye

Encore:

16. Bright Lights
17. Trigger Happy
18. Infra-red
19. Taste In Men