The Faint - Sheffield Octagon, 8th April 2004.

The Faint - Sheffield Octagon, 2004.





The Faint
Sheffield octagon.


Everywhere you look, goths.  This isn't your typical Faint audience, for tonight, the faint are supporting Placebo, (who I would also review, if it weren't for the fact they were unquestionably dull).

People were there to jump up and down, how should they react when confronted with keyboards, drum machines, and a mass of solid energy?
Well, after the initial confusion passed, the audience really started getting into The Faint.  It's hard not to get into a band that plays with such a huge amount of intensity. It felt as if the band had stolen Leftfield's sound-system, the bass shook you right in the throat with alarming intensity, an intensity that was shared by  vocalist Todd Baechele as he leapt from keyboard to mic and across the stage in a way that made MC Hammer look like he was suffering with arthyritis.
Or maybe it was the intensity of the songs. On CD the faint make great electro-pop songs, yet live they turn these songs into epic stompalongs.
Worked up so sexual, agenda suicide, call call, and your retro career melted, all shook the foundations of the octagon, not to mention the foundation off the, now smiling, goth kids faces by using beats harder than Nine Inch Nails, and tunes funkier than Daft Punk, and all the while not managing to slip into pretentiousness.
After 25 minutes it was all over, a silence fell upon the octagon, and people tried to figure out just what  happened. A stunned silence. Tonight the faint provided the perfect short sharp shop treatment to a bemused placebo audience, winning them over, and blasting the headliners straight off the stage.
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