IDLES & The Walkmen at Forest Hills Stadium [Photos]

On Friday night, IDLES and the Walkmen took the stage at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. Touring in support of their new album TANGK, IDLES delivered a rousing, career-spanning 25-song set, including tracks like “Mr. Motivator,” “Dive and Conquer” and “The Beachland Ballroom.” During a performance of “Samaritans,” a young crowd member named Ash played drums with the band onstage, while Joe Talbot and his crew delivered a stirring rendition of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

Earlier this year, IDLES released TANGK, a record that “tackles freedom and redemption (‘Gift Horse’), lovesick prayer (‘Grace’) and death softened into joy (‘Gratitude’). The album oscillates through textures, putting Bowen and Lee Kiernan’s guitars on pedestals without downplaying the entire band’s collective swagger. A song like ‘Roy’ is, possibly, one of IDLES’ boldest moments yet, as Talbot and co. revel in restraint, sing lovingly about surrender and exorcising self-doubt and dive head-first into a treasure-trove of explosiveness during the song’s cornerstone final act.”

Paste editor Matt Mitchell wrote that “TANGK posits a worthwhile future, one built on love and on tenderness and one that has begun painting lines on the highway of wherever IDLES go next. “All is love” has been a mantra that has followed the band for six, seven years now, and they’ve finally made good on those three words five albums in. Talbot, Mark Bowen, Jon Beavis, Kiernan and Adam Devonshire have embraced the vast malleability of affection, how it can be not just for ourselves but for those around us.”

Check out our photos from IDLES and the Walkmen’s Forest Hills Stadium performance, captured by Emilio Herce, below.

The Walkmen

IDLES