By: Jonathan Dekel

If seeing a pseudo-‘Goth’ rock band whose last, and some would argue only, hit was around the late nineties wasn’t surreal enough, the fact that their ‘sold out’ show at the Kool Haus on Monday was wrapped up at 10.30 so that the under-agers, who were hardly in double digits when ‘pure morning’ swept the airwaves, could get home before their bedtime sealed the deal.

Sure, Brian Moloko and co still sounded the same, but could their ‘dark’ credentials really hold true if by 9.30 they were already into their fourth song? The sun had just set, this was no time for vampires. And yet, as if still in their prime, dressed firmly in black, the threesome (which was actually a foursome with a bassist hidden behind an amp) played to the adoring teenybopper crowd, who, in tern, were putty in their black-nailed hands.

If ‘Pure Morning’ was the promise of great lyrical (rhyming ‘weed’ with ‘indeed’, ‘breasts’ with ‘all the rest’…witty!) and musical ambition, almost ten years on and it seems that the boys seemed to peak and coast. Almost every song involved the same style and rhythm as the previous one. Which is not to say it’s not a good style and rhythm, but c’mon boys, you’re at album number five, SOME variation wouldn’t hurt.

But maybe, being in my twenties, I’m too old to “get” Placebo…and that’s just a little sad, and not in the good way.