On June 18, 2007 about 3,500 fans witnessed the second Placebo concert in Sofia, Bulgaria. Unlike their first show on September 12, 2003 at the National Palace of Culture, this time the British indie rock trio performed at the Winters Sports Palace, which had both its positive and negative sides...

Doubtlessly, most of the fans felt better now, standing and singing and dancing right in front of the stage, instead of sitting, as it was the case four years ago. However, the venue had its negative impact mainlyВ on the sound quality now... but one thing's for sure - the acoustics at the National Palace of Culture are maybe the best in Bulgaria, like it or not.

The show started a few minutes after 8 p.m. with a 30-minute-long set by the local indie rockers Ostava. The audience welcomed warmly the quintet, and theВ musiciansВ "awarded" the crowd with a bunch of new cuts, as well as some well-known older hits, cumminating in their most popular song, "Chocolate".

Around 9:15 p.m. the entire hall roared and greeted London's superstars on stage -В Brian MolkoВ (vocals and guitar),В Stefan OlsdalВ (bass, guitar and backing vocals)В and Steve Hewitt (drums). We should mention here that again, as it was the case in 2003, a solid part of the music was played not just by the trio, but by the two live additions to the line-up, too, namely William Lloyd (keys and programming)В andВ Alex LeeВ (keyboards and guitar; ex-Suede).

After the strong start with "Infra-Red", "Because I Want You", "Meds"В and "Drag" off their current album, "Meds" (2006), Placebo offerd a quite good mixture of newer and older hits, starting with "Bionic" off the self-titled 1996 debut, going on through "Every You Every Me"В off "Without You I'm Nothing" (1998)В and "Special K"В off "Black Market Music" (2000), on throughВ "The Bitter End"В and "Special Needs" off "Sleeping with Ghosts" (2003).

Naturally, the accent fell on the newer cuts, that's why lots of the fans regretted the lack of some all-time Placebo classics, a.o. "Pure Morning", "Nancy Boy", "Black-Eyed", "English Summer Rain", "Protect Me from What I Want" (see the entireВ setlist below). However, as some sort of a "replacement", PlaceboВ did a brilliant encore, including the cover version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", the hypnotic "Taste in Men" and the absolute masterpiece "Twenty Years".

After 90 minutes on stage Placebo said "Goodbye!"... for the second time... leaving us waiting for the third "Good evening, Sofia!".

Words & photos: Nicki Vassilev / Tangra Mega Rock.

More photos of the show are available in our GALLERY.