As the sun begins to set over the second day of Rockness 2008, Tom Smith leads out his band of festival veterans, for what is expected to be one of the highlights of this superb festival. The massed crowd certainly indicates that people expect big things from Editors these days, and in this reviewer's experience, they rarely disappoint.
Opening with a slowed down take on 'Bones', Editors are clearly adopting the slow-burn approach for today's set, and the result is a mellow, and wholly unsatisfactory experience. Rockness 2008 has been typified by the hard and fast approach, and mellow just doesn't fit in.
The set is essentially the same as that delivered at Glastonbury last year, and that may be part of the problem. Everything just feels a little bit stale. Whereas the material felt fresh and new being belted out across the muddy fields of Pilton last year, it now feels just a little bit weak, as if Smith has run out of ideas. Without spicing up the set a little, even the most dedicated performers can start to just go through the motions, and that is what, it appears, is beginning to happen to Editors.
All that said, the set isn't bad, per se. It's just that since their inception, Editors have set the standard for live performance, and the have constantly had the ability to excite and inspire. When a band set the bar that high for themselves, they have to ensure that they keep up the standard, otherwise they risk falling short. I have no doubt that today's show is merely a blip, but in order to reach the heights they are capable of, they need to ensure that these blips don't happen too often.
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