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Review & Photos: Suede @ Rock City, Nottingham [Live]
28th March 2013, Rock City, Nottingham
by cfaruolo, March 30th, 2013 and has been Read 504 times.
In 1992, Suede pretty much single handedly got everyone interested in British music again, providing the glamour severely lacking from the gloomy grunge scene that had been coming at us from across the Atlantic. Suede then distanced themselves from the resulting cliquey Britpop scene and its lad rock image, before splitting in 2002, following their critically panned fifth album, which singer, Brett Anderson, now refers to as “pretty shit”.
A reunion gig for Teenage Cancer Trust and a phenomenal reaction to a series of festival appearances, prompted Suede to return to the studio to “play around with some songs” and maybe make a new album. Earlier this month that new album surfaced in the guise of Bloodsports, receiving much praise from the media and fans alike and surprisingly containing no references to ‘Nuclear skies’ or ‘council estates’.
With a huge date at Alexandra Palace just two days away, Suede chose the slightly less grand Nottingham Rock City for a warm-up show.
Proving they’re not just another 90s reformed band going through their back catalogue for a bunch of mid 30-somethings hoping to relive their youth, Suede begin their set with three tracks in a row from the aforementioned new Bloodsports album.
Album opener ‘Barriers’ is first up and got the audience crooning along to the huge sing-a-long chorus before energetically head nodding to the up-tempo ‘Snowblind,’ a classic glam rock stomper that could easily have been taken off of any Suede album. More energetic jumping up and down follows as the crowd recognise a more familiar song in ‘It Starts & Ends With You,’ Suede's first single in over a decade.
But it’s the next two songs that really sends the venue into euphoria. ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘Metal Mickey’ see the audience scream, jump and push towards the stage in an attempt to get closer to Brett Anderson, who leans into the crowd to grab the hoards of outstretched hands aimed towards him.
The trademark arse slapping of the young Brett Anderson of the early nineties has been missing for sometime now, but at 45 years old he’s still one of the most charismatic front men ever! Swinging the microphone, climbing on top of monitors, bouncing up and down and wiggling his hips as he laps up the adulation coming from the pit! His energy and enthusiasm on stage puts performers half his age to shame.
Brett Anderson takes a breather before the next song and finally addresses his adorers:
“Hello Nottingham. We’re ‘the Suede group’. We’re gonna play some new songs for you tonight. We’re gonna play some old songs, some fast songs and some slow songs. Hope you’re gonna like them. Here’s another oldie for you...”
The band then launch into a remarkable live version of ‘We Are The Pigs,’ before taking it down a peg with the dreamy ‘Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away’.
It’s not long until the audience are once again in a frenzy and I’m barged out the way by some teenagers jumping around like a couple of nutters, as the opening riff to ‘Killing Of A Flashboy’ fills Nottingham Rock City. The fact that these teenagers are going nuts to a B-Side from a single released before they were even born just goes to show the legacy Suede has, and their relevance to today’s youth.
New tracks ‘Faultlines’ and ‘Always’ are followed by the timeless ‘So Young’ and the Suede fan anthems ‘Trash’ and ‘Beautiful Ones’ which results in the entire 2000 capacity singing along to every word!
A brief fag backstage and the band return for an encore of ‘What Are You Not Telling Me?’ and ‘For The Strangers’. “Thank you all for joining us at the Suede Nottingham Tea Party” Brett says “It’s been lovely, we’ve never been here before. Or have we?” he asks the crowd with a confused look on his face “Come on, someone must know. Have we been here before?”. He then shrugs his shoulders and says “Either way, we’ve had a great time and we’d love to come back…if you’ll have us again”. The crowd cheer in approval and a huge cheeky grin takes over Brett Anderson’s face!
Suede wrap up their set with ‘New Generation’ which seems a fitting statement (intentional or not). The venue tonight is a mixture of fans old and new, and with all but one track ('Sabotage') from the new album being in the set list tonight, it’s clear Suede is now appealing to a whole new generation of fans. The only criticism from tonight’s gig is that there were so many hits and tracks that Suede didn’t play. But when you have a back catalogue as good and as big as Suede’s and a remarkable new album to fit into just 1 hour 40 minutes, there’s not much else you can do. A truly triumphant return!