Win Tickets ($80): Placebo @ Crystal Ballroom | Pop Rock, Industrial, Britpop
We are giving away a pair of tickets to Placebo @ Crystal Ballroom on September 7. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed August 29.
———————————————
From our sponsors:
Placebo
September 7, 2022
6:30PM Doors, 8PM Show | All Ages
GA $35 ADV, $40 Doors
21+ Reserved Balcony $40 ADV, $45 Doors
More info: crystalballroompdx.com
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St, Portland, OR 97209
Placebo are on fire again. More than a quarter-century since vocalist-guitarist Brian Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal started bashing around with broken guitars and toy instruments in Molko’s front room in Deptford, the core duo have dug very deep to spirit up their gobsmackingly urgent eighth long-player.
Called ‘Never Let Me Go’, it channels all their skill as songwriters and sound-makers into music that satisfies their near-brutal appetite for self-expression, but also seeks a furious relevance with the early-’20s world we all find ourselves in – crawling out of the pandemic into a landscape of intolerance, division, tech-saturation and imminent eco-catastrophe.
As such, the 2021-model Placebo are the diametric opposite of mid-career complacency, tackling both global issues and their own creative demands head on. The option to sit back and coast on former glories was there on a plate for them when they were last among us circa 2016-18.
A best-of collection entitled ‘A Place For Us To Dream’ had propelled them onto a world-wide greatest-hits tour – much of it in arenas and large outdoor venues – where they’d dust off mid-’90s arriviste bangers like Pure Morning, Nancy Boy, and Without You I’m Nothing, the single version of which David Bowie lent his vocals to. The marketing script probably stipulated that playing these songs every night would reconnect them with their most commercial instincts, but the experience quickly became nightmarish for them.
“I thought it all got a little bit too commercial, around that period – the retrospective period,” says Brian today, virtually spitting out those words with revulsion. “The whole enterprise was commercial, rather than artistic one, and I guess we reacted against that. I’m like, ‘Fuck this, the next record is gonna be about the pain of the world!’ The silent scream that is everywhere – that’s what interests me. Not this masturbatory, self-congratulatory two-year thing of, aren’t we amazing?”
Adds Stefan, “It was actually like this gruelling five-year tour which went from the last album being released [2013’s ‘Loud Like Love’] into the greatest hits. It kind of went on and on, and it was sucking the life out of me. I didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm left for the band, because I think I was just drained. The thought of doing it again filled me with dread.”
Categories
Tags
45 Comments
Leave a Comment
Keep in Touch!
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates
Really dig their early albums and would enjoy a free pair of tickets to catch them live!
My favorite band is coming to pdx!!!
Haven’t seen them live in over a decade. Thrilled they are coming back to the PNW!
Would love to take my sister and re-live the memories and band we discovered 25 years ago!!! 🙂
The kids will be going back to school in September and I will be depressed so let me win to hear some music please. Thanks
I just saw that they were going to be playing in Portland. I’ve been a BIG fan since ~1998, and would LOVE to see them!!
It’s called Placebo, but it’s the real thing!
Since I can’t have The Cure, I’ll take the Placebo!
recently got obsessed w them, would love to see them live!
live music at the Crystal? Yea, it’s been a while for me for sure!!
Oh man, it’s like I’m living in the depressed era of the late 90s all over again! Would LOVE to see them live, would be a first for me.
i mean, c’mon, it’s placebo!!!! it would be an awesome time travelling opportunity 😉
I’d like to see them live.
I would love to see them live, never seen them before.
Saw them open for silverchair a few times in Australia would love to see them headlining in a smaller venue thanks
Sign me up for the Placebo group.
I can think outside the box for this!
Every me and Every you wants to win these.
Ok this one is for my boyfriend and his borther…They’re obsessed with Placebo!!
Omg haven’t seen these guys in forever!! Would be great!
Would love to see this band
A friend with weed is better.
These guys remind me of late 90s alt rock explorations. Clever lyrics and smooth beats.
My husband would love to see this show!
Looong time fan! Even loving the new album! I’m so down to see Molko and the boys!
Wow… I have been a fan from the beginning and their music has been there for many moments in my life. It would be a dream come true to finally get to see them live.
Seeing them would be the best
Hell yeah!
OMG YES PLEASE! Haven’t seen these guys in over a decade it would be so great to again! 🤘🏽🔥
Would love to go!
I would love to see Placebo please!
This particular Placebo heals all that ails me. Help me get my medicine!
‘Cause there’s nothing else to do
Every me and every you
Haven’t seen before, definitely want to!
Will it ever get the opportunity to see them again ?!
Bucket list band for me!!!
They might not be real, but they make me feel better.
Live music is heaven!
I’ve been wanting to see them for years!
Navigating a hostile divorce from 20 years of domestic violence. Having an amazing concert to look forward to would help lift my spirits. I miss live music so much.
Would like to see them live!
I’ve never seen them in concert but they got me through some rough and confusing times in and after high school. I’m forever grateful to Brian for that. Who saw him in Velvet Goldmine??
Ahhh my dream concert!
Yes yes yes please.
Grew up listening to these kings. Would love to go.