Like a lot of my favourite bands and musicians from my teen years, I was introduced to Placebo by my friend Kylie. Being a couple of years older, she introduced me to a lot of music that I probably wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. Considering this is the ‘20 Year Tour‘, that would have made me 11. I don’t think I was actually listening to Placebo at 11, I think it was more 13 and beyond.

Thankfully, I was super lucky to get a ticket as a birthday gift because there was no way I could afford to pay $160 for one ticket. I was super sick leading up to the concert and was worried I wasn’t going to make it, but I pushed through and had an AMAZING time!

This was the first time I’ve ever been to a concert by myself. A huge deal. Plus, it was at a venue I’d never been to before. I’m really proud of myself actually, I made it through the trip in, the concert and part of the way home before I got too overwhelmed by people and ended up catching an Uber the rest of the way home.

The concert itself was great. I’d never heard of the opening band Deaf Havana before, but I quite enjoyed them. Brian and Stefan took the stage to start the show with ‘Pure Morning’ after a video intro of ‘Every You, Every Me’. I was seated next to a guy who was really getting into it and luckily was very friendly. At one point he leant over and said: “I just have to ask, what year were you born?”. The age range of the crowd was indeed surprising, I’d say from 12-year-olds to people in their late 60s.

Set List

Pure Morning
Loud Like Love
Jesus’ Son
Soulmates
Special Needs
Too Many Friends
Twenty Years
I Know
Devil in the Details
Protect Me From What I Want
Without You I’m Nothing
For What it’s Worth
Slave to the Wage
Special K
Song to Say Goodbye
The Bitter End

Nancy Boy
Infra-Red

Running Up That Hill

I admit I got emotional during “Without You, I’m Nothing”. They projected video and images of Bowie and it was beautiful and heartbreaking. I’m still so thankful I got to see Bowie live. He will always be my favourite musician, and to see Placebo play the song live was very moving.

For the first Encore, Stefan came out holding his rainbow guitar and talked about his support for Marriage Equality. He then got the crowd to join in a chant of “Margaret Court – Fork You”. In case you didn’t know, the concert was held at Margaret Court Arena. Named after the Tennis star who earlier in the year went on spewing a lot of hate speech. I had wondered if anything would be said, but I was glad to see the halls outside the arena filled with “vote yes” campaigners.

Stefan last night, holding up with rainbow guitar whilst getting the crowd to chant “fork you” after he says “Margaret Court”. ???? #placebo pic.twitter.com/LehxMam9sM

— Natalie Mulford (@natatree) September 9, 2017

Brian thanked Australian Doctors for helping him out. He had tonsillitis, but you never would have guessed from his voice or performance. The show ended on another one of my favourite songs, Running Up That Hill. I adore the original Kate Bush version, but there is just something otherworldly to the Placebo cover. What a way to end the night!