Placebo

O2 Academy, Leeds

3 Stars

It must be galling for Placebo to see contemporaries such as Suede and Pulp reform to glowing live reviews. Having plugged away to diminishing returns since 1994, the trio have yet to benefit from the warmth of nostalgia afforded to such reunions.

On the evidence of this one-off benefit gig it's unlikely that this situation will change as their set of heads-down goth rock alternately thrills, frustrates and bores.

Augmented by three session players on violin, guitar and keyboard they create an almost industrial wall of sound on material drawn heavily from seventh studio album Loud Like Love. The problem is that it generally takes their distinctive formula of post-punk guitars and nasal vocals to self-parodic levels.

This is typified by lead single Too Many Friends, which addresses loneliness in the age of social media. Annoyingly catchy, it's nonetheless undermined by Brian Molko playing the androgyny card that marked their biggest gender-bending hit, 1997's Nancy Boy - notably absent from tonight's set.

Placebo's challenge is how to move forward when loneliness and androgyny is what drew people to them in the first place, and clearly still does, as the "got no friends/got no lover" singalong on For What It's Worth testifies.

There are vague attempts to address other lyrical concerns on the clumsy Rob The Bank but the most entertaining part of the number is watching Steve Forrest's mop of blond hair flick in time to his frantic drumming.

They're more successful at breaking out of their tired formula when they add light and shade to the set, with a downbeat encore of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill adding more electronics to their mix.

A slowed-down version of Teenage Angst combines violin with lacerating guitar, while A Million Little Pieces foregoes Molko's usual lyrical obsessions of fast sex, bad drugs, and existentialism to admit with candid self-awareness that "I feel I've lost my spark."

Such moments hint at why Placebo continue to connect with so many people. But they've got a long way to go to re-establish themselves as a vital contemporary force.

Susan Darlington