UK rock band Idles graced the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, where members Joe Talbot and Mark Bowen recalled its importance as one of the first US venues they played when they started out more than a decade ago, to play songs off their latest album “Crawler” for “Live From My Den.” Bowen, the band’s guitarist, participated in a separate interview but missed the recorded performance as he was on paternity leave following the birth of his first child.
“[The Beachland Ballroom]’s got history, and its history is on its sleeve and it’s something rare these days,” Talbot remarked about the intimate, 500-capacity venue. “The last thing you want as a human being that thrives off of other human beings as an artist is to have a sterile environment in which to express yourself. There’s something intangible and magic about the humanity of this small venue and everything it carries. It’s a special, special place and this is my favorite venue.”
The band’s endearing sentimentality toward the Cleveland venue became the inspiration for the song carrying the Ballroom’s name off their 2021 record “Crawler,” which was recently nominated for best rock album at the upcoming Grammy awards. Of the song, Bowen said the song was purposely produced to sound like it was recorded in an empty ballroom, and its combined rock and soul tones made it feel appropriate to them to name it after the venue.
“[The song chronicled] that moment where we went from being a band doing toileters in the UK and having four people there to then stepping forward and playing a show where there’s 17 people out at the
Beachland Tavern and then going to like a sold out show at the Beachland Ballroom,” Bowen said. “It kind of had that defiance because no one thought we were going to ever achieve that or that it would ever happen. It was all just a pipe dream.”
Of their Grammy-nominated “Crawler,” Talbot reflected on its recent one-year anniversary and talked about how proud he was of how it turned out, along with how much it has better informed his own understanding of himself.
“[‘Crawler’ is] our best album. It’s our most accomplished musically. And I think it’s beautiful,” Talbot said. “It helped me understand a lot to do where I’ve come from and what I want from my life. I mostly feel a very strong sense of gratitude that’s fueled myself in the band for the last year. It’s been amazing.”
Watch the full performance above.
This season of Live from My Den is made possible by Hard Rock and in partnership with Fujifilm X Series US.
