Rothko
New York City
Words by Cameron Cook
Photos by Jay Chen

I must admit, before witnessing Editors for the first time Saturday night, I was fairly skeptical to the heaps and heaps of hype the band had been garnering on this side of the pond. I’d even heard a seasoned A&R friend of mine refer to then as “on their way to being as big as Radiohead” (?!?). Sure, The Back Room, the band’s near-perfect gloom-rock debut has been in heavy rotation on my iTunes since last fall, but the circus generated around last week’s U.S. mini-tour (multiple sold-out venue changes, feverish blogging, manic Craigslist postings) kind of put my hipster guard up, so to speak. And after being forced to stand on my feet for two and a half hours (doors at 9, band at 11:30, no openers) I was pretty much ready to rip Editors a new one if they faltered but once before ‘Sup‘s mighty judgment. Luckily for all parties involved, they were nothing short of brilliant.

As soon as they took the stage, the ultra-packed venue went absolutely fucking nuts, fists pumping, the whole crowd howling. A surprising amount of people knew the words to every song, from instant crowd pleaser and current single “Munich” to equally pleasing anthem “Bullets” to the evening’s definite highlight, “Camera”, a so-so album track that, when infused with frontman Tom Smith’s live presence (think a keyboard-tinkling Chris Martin gone completely ape-shit on acid) took on a whole new meaning. The song ecstatically rose above all others, and when Tom practically wept “look at us/through the lens of a camera”, I swear I saw some horn-rimmed glasses fog up. They brought it all home with a set-closing “Finger in the Factories”, possibly the only infectious mope-pop song about people’s digits being hacked off (then again, probably not).

While perhaps not achieving Radiohead-like proportions, Editors could very well be the band to talk about in 2006. Let’s hope the blood in their veins can keep on pumping through life-affirming concerts like this one.