IDLES turned Night Club 101 into The Pyramid Club for sweaty surprise ‘Caught Stealing’ show (pics, setlist, video)

IDLES (photo by Ellen Qbertplaya)

Darren Aronofsky’s new film Caught Stealing opens this week, and as the film is set in NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side in the late ’90s, there have been some fun viral promotions for it. Namely, they installed old-school payphones around the city and have been giving numbers via the film’s socials to call on them as part of a few scavenger hunts. On Thursday, people were sent to the pay phone on Houston amd E. 2nd, and after punching in the code #IDLES (#43537), they were led to A1 Records, where they were given a ticket to see The Idles at The Pyramid Club that night.

The Pyramid Club no longer exists, but the space at 101 Ave A is now Night Club 101, and The Idles turned out to be IDLES, who did the soundtrack for Caught Stealing. Keeping with the 1998 theme of film, they put up a reproduction of The Pyramid Club’s sign outside the club and printed up old-school flyers for the show. They also stuck “Caught Stealing” stickers onto phone cameras on the way into the main performance space, which holds maybe 150 people. (Their previous NYC show was headlining Forest Hills Stadium.) It all made for a very fun, occasionally wild, and very sweaty show.

It was extra sweaty as two songs in, frontman Joe Talbot, who had already knocked one of colored soundproofing tiles above the stage loose during opener “Heel/Heel,” asked the club to please turn off the A/C. (Near the end of the show, drenched head-to-toe, he hilariously asked them to please turn it back on.) Another tile came off a couple more songs into their hour-long set, which was a condensed version of IDLES’ greatest hits, with many of their crowd participatory moments all squashed into a tiny room. Those included the “COLLIDE” wall of death moment, having everyone squat down for “I’m Scum,” and multiple times when guitarists Mark Bowen (shirtless and constantly spinning) and Lee Kiernan (great hair whips) lept into and onto the swarming pit.

In addition to IDLES faves like “Gift Horse,” “Never Fight a Man With a Perm,” “Danny Nedelko,” and more, they gave “Rabbit Run” from the Caught Stealing its live debut, which Joe said he promised they would get better at. The band clearly reveled at getting to play such a small show and the crowd returned in kind by going bananas the whole time, including one shirtless superfan who jumped on stage, grabbed the mic, and sang, while Talbot stood back and grinned.

Talbot, wearing a shirt emblazoned with “THANK GOD FOR IMMIGRANTS” below a picture of Wham!, was outspoken as usual, yelling “Fuck ICE” (appropriately right after getting the A/C turned off), and shouting out the importance of immigrants as an intro for “Danny Nedelko.” He also intro’d “Mother” by saying “a lot of people think this song is about my mother, but it’s actually about my favorite Darren Aronofsky film.”

Pictures from the show by Ellen Qbertplaya, plus video of IDLES playing “Rabbit Run,” are below.

SETLIST: IDLES at Night Club 101 8/27/2025
Heel / Heal
Gift Horse
Mr Motivator
Mother
I’m Scum
Divide and Conquer
The Wheel
Never Fight a Man With a Perm
Dancer
Rabbit Run
Danny Nedelko
Rottweiler