It's difficult to say if this is the peak performance of the 2017 festival campaign, given how good Pukkelpop was and also considering they had a homecoming show at Beyond the Tracks in September to do, but it's certainly up there.

Mr Rezvani was on the stage taking pictures throughout the set, including being ringside for the moment where Tom climbed the piano during ERM=BD. A welcome return for an old friend in the Editors universe.

Before I go any further, this isn't the stream that was broadcast the night of the gig. It was suffering from some audio lag in places which I confirmed with a couple of other people, so this is from an HD television broadcast, meaning you get the best quality out there. It was recorded and made available to the world by a very kind soul named jerpaa and for that, I and all the rest of us are truly grateful. Thank you.

It felt like this was the first time in a long time that they played the older songs with the same conviction that they did when they were first written and performed. If you go back and look at the four tracks played at Primo Maggio, which was the first gig on this run of concerts in 2017, and then compare them with the Lowlands versions you'll see what I mean. I don't know if it's just them finally getting acclimatised to being on the road again, but the enthusiasm even for those compositions they may have been feeling a little jaded towards seemed to be back. They all appeared to be smiling more onstage too, which is obviously totally against their inherently downbeat and miserable nature. Whatever is going on, it was infectious. There's a shot of the crowd right at the start of ERM=BD where King Leetch is leading them all in a side-to-side hands movement while Tom jumps from one foot to the other in time with them. Everything is working, and both the band and the crowd just seem to get each other completely in that moment. Watch Ed during the section just before he final chorus of Blood where he's pounding away on the drums with his wayward fringe whipping his face. What about Elliott and Justin during Nothing, and a surprise guest appearance by a member of Team Editors' as a second drummer with Ed? Take a look at the part of Papillon where they break down to the extended "Elliott Section". Normally, Tom tells the crowd to raise their hands but here, he doesn't need to. He just stares at them and with (gloomy) telepathy it just just...happens. Synergy, baby. This whole show had it in abundance.

In science there's a theory called the "observing effect", where just the act of watching or measuring something changes what is being observed. Ordinarily that would apply to a live concert because when it's really working there's a feedback loop going on between those on the stage and those in attendance. The crowd energy/apathy can drastically change the way a show goes down (see their show at Maxidrom 2016 for an example of the latter). Now add to that the fact that the show is being professionally shot and recorded and you've got an extremely talented photographer on the stage with you taking pictures. No pressure. This has to effect the way you play, and where it could have resulted in the band retreating back down several alleyways of frostiness and closing themselves off, they all seem to take it as a cue to up their game and give more. Maybe even trying to give more than they take...

It may also have been an indicator that they'd finally found their way out from under the very long shadow cast by Chris' departure, and I do think it's taken 3 albums to achieve it, which is the same number of long players made by Editors Mk1. They looked like they'd allowed themselves the simple pleasure of just playing those fantastic songs written with his contribution, without the awkward stigma that accompanied them for a while there. And as I've said before they seem to really switch on when they're playing the newer songs like Hallelujah (So Low) or Magazine. I wonder if part of the motivation for constructing this festival campaign was to test to the new material, of course, but also to gauge their own enthusiasm for playing live? Is the fire still there? On the evidence provided from the 17 shows up to this point, I would hope the answer is a positive one because if not, then Lowlands was the best act of performance forgery I've ever witnessed. A genuine pleasure to watch, hope you enjoy it too.

The Setlist
Cold (with intro) 0:00
Sugar 5:03
Racing Rats 9:32
Blood 13:50
Hallelujah (So Low) 17:36
ERM=BD 21:45
Munich 26:35
AEHAS 30:44
Smokers 34:48
Magazine 40:00
A Ton of Love 44:23
Ocean of Night 48:30
Nothing 54:08
Marching Orders 58:55
Papillon 1:06:37

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