START AGAIN

Allergic

Soul Mates

Protect Me from What I Want

The Bitter End

Every You Every Me

Black Eyed

I’ll Be Yours

Special Needs

Without You I’m Nothing

Days Before You Came

Slave To The Wage

Pure Morning

(from FM broadcast, E-Werk, Cologne Germany 3/12/2003)

The Bitter End

I’ll Be Yours

Special Needs

Without You I’m Nothing

(from FM broadcast, Astoria ,London 3/10/2003)

Britain’s Placebo, fronted by eyeliner-wearing androgyne Brian Molko, initially had a kind of Pixies-meets-Sonic Youth style, but by the time of 2003’s Sleeping With Ghosts they’d mutated into kind of glam-pop-goes-electronica outfit. Molko can’t decide whether he wants to be a hedonistic Ziggy Stardust or a more intellectually-minded Thom Yorke, and as a result the group’s sound has suffered from stylistic schizophrenia – not a good thing. To be fair, the band seems a tad more compelling live, based on the evidence here, but only a tad. A lot of material has a samey feel to it.

At any rate, here you get a 45 minute show from the band plus a 15-minute mini-set, both in broadcast sound. (I’m guessing FM, but they could also be webcasts captured with a high-speed quality connection.) The main portion, from Germany, oddly enough, has a somewhat flat ambiance to it, as the sound noticeably jumps up a notch for the London portion. A nice 4-page booklet (per Pablo tradition) and two-sided tray panel are included. Overall, a decent bootleg, but given the subject matter one wonders just how many copies Pablo could possibly hope to sell of this – Placebo is hardly a collectible artist – and in turn, ask the question, “Why bother in the first place?” -- OSWALD