21/04 - ​​Bristol O2 Academy

Topics in this forum must be about Suede.
Discuss, ask, swap, worship here, as long as it is about Suede!
Post Reply
sunshine
Flight attendant
Posts: 7937
Joined: 14 Feb 2002, 01:00

21/04 - ​​Bristol O2 Academy

Post by sunshine »

They played: As One, To The Birds, Outsiders, We Are The Pigs, So Young, Metal Mickey, Flashboy, Tides, Road Kill, Panto Horse, Saturday Night (Rich acoustic), Drowners, Starts and Ends, He's Dead, Sabotage, Trash, Animal Nitrate, Big Time /Europe (solo acoustic), Float Away, Invisibles, Flytipping.
Encores: Beautiful Ones, Life is Golden
sunshine
Flight attendant
Posts: 7937
Joined: 14 Feb 2002, 01:00

Re: 21/04 - ​​Bristol O2 Academy

Post by sunshine »

22 APR 2019
Britpop kings Suede perform exhilarating show at Bristol's O2 Academy: 'He’s a remarkable frontman who had the fans eating out of his hand all night'
Mark Taylor
It’s 27 years since Suede graced the cover of Melody Maker, pictured under a career-launching headline hailing them ‘the best new band in Britain’. That appearance catapulted the band into immediate stardom and kickstarted what was to become an influential new musical scene known as Britpop.
In the intervening years, the band has survived changes of personnel and a brief split, while frontman Brett Anderson has conquered his well-documented drug and alcohol addictions, penning his Coal Black Mornings memoir last year to much acclaim.
And now they’re back on the road for a short sell-out British tour to support the release of their eighth studio album, The Blue Hour, which has picked up some surprisingly favourable reviews for a band still creating exciting new music after three decades.
Anderson’s trademark foppish black fringe may now be flecked with grey but he looks remarkably well preserved for 51 considering the excess and debauchery of his twenty-something self.
Now living a far quieter life near Frome with his wife and children, he now regards Bristol as the closest to playing a home town gig.
Although several tracks from the new album were aired and well received, most notably a soaring version of Invisibles, which segued into Flytipping, this was a career-spanning set that gave the fans exactly what they had paid for.
Although the rest of the band deserve credit, it was a masterclass in showmanship from Anderson, who was born to be on stage and in the spotlight. He’s a remarkable frontman who had the fans eating out of his hand all night.
He ran around the stage with the energy of somebody half his age. For more than an hour and a half, he barely stood still, spending the majority of the time walking along monitors along the edge of the stage as if on a tightrope.
By the mid-way point during The Drowners, he had flung himself into the front of the sweaty mass, held aloft by the crowd and still singing in the spotlight, his black shirt ripped in several places by pawing fans.
He barely stopped for breath apart from when he sat down with an acoustic guitar, drenched in sweat, to perform an acoustic version of The Big Time, one of Suede’s early b-sides which generated one of the biggest pints-in-the-air audience singalongs of the night.
The hits kept coming as Anderson and the band cruised through a carousel of crowd-pleasers We Are The Pigs, So Young, Metal Mickey, Trash and Animal Nitrate.
Saturday Night was another song slowed down and performed acoustically - this time accompanied by ace guitarist Richard Oakes - and a blistering version of early b-side To The Birds was given a rare outing, much to the appreciation of diehards.
But it was a frenetic encore of Beautiful Ones and Life Is Golden, which a misty-eyed Anderson dedicated to his young son, that brought this exhilarating show to a close after 100 minutes.
They may have been around for three decades but Suede’s resurrection is still gathering momentum and they are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/ ... D36zNB4qDU
sunshine
Flight attendant
Posts: 7937
Joined: 14 Feb 2002, 01:00

Re: 21/04 - ​​Bristol O2 Academy

Post by sunshine »

April 23 2019
FIRST NIGHT: POP
Review: Suede at the O2 Academy, Bristol
Stephen Dalton
★★★★☆
At what point does a self-respecting middle-aged rock star discreetly retire from undignified, potentially dangerous stunts such as stage-diving into a molten maelstrom of shirt-ripping fans? Brett Anderson may be 51, but, spookily, he almost looks younger today than he did during Suede’s prime in the 1990s.
The band’s Bristol show happened to fall on Iggy Pop’s 72nd birthday, and at times Anderson seemed to be channelling the punk godfather with a primal performance of sweat-drenched, chest-thumping, hip-twisting physicality. His boundless energy was exhilarating to witness, albeit slightly exhausting.
Nine years and three albums into their second-act reunion, Suede are increasingly looking like the great indestructible survivors of the Britpop generation. Anderson joked about his creeping deafness and creaky knees, but his lithe, lusty, ferocious performance told a different story. After only three numbers, his shiny black shirt was ripped open during the first of many frenzied audience immersions.
Displaying admirable self-belief, Suede liberally sprinkled this show with tracks from their latest album, The Blue Hour. Several of these gothic pastorals, notably the brooding As One and the majestically overblown Flytipping, already sounded like semi-classics. That said, the new songs inevitably could not compete with the riotous, roof-raising reception that greeted vintage teen-outsider anthems such as Trash, Animal Nitrate and Beautiful Ones. A rarity among British bands, Suede rarely adopt an ironic tone. Indeed, a key factor in their enduring appeal is their evergreen ability to tap into the supercharged, solipsistic emotional extremism of adolescence.
Stripped of arty visuals or orchestral trimmings, this show felt more formally conservative than previous Suede tours. A couple of newer tracks strained too hard for dramatic effect, while Anderson’s solo acoustic busker-style version of The Wild Ones dragged a little. Dead Bird, an eerie spoken-word incantation from The Blue Hour, offered a welcome but brief respite from Simon Gilbert’s clobbering tribal drums and Richard Oakes’s overdriven glam-punk guitar. Suede may be matchless masters of the rip-roaringly romantic sing-along chorus, but they also have more subtlety and range than they seemed willing to explore in this headbanging performance.
Minor niggles aside, this was a mostly triumphant and swaggeringly confident show from a band who no longer have anything to prove. Anderson dedicated the final encore, Life is Golden, to his young son, who was in the audience. “I don’t give a shit if anyone thinks it’s sentimental,” he said, grinning. “I’m 51, I’m allowed to be sentimental.”
Touring: Brighton Dome, April 23; Leeds Academy, April 24; Cardiff University, April 26; Southampton Guildhall, April 27; Cambridge Corn Exchange, April 28
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/revi ... uN42H0fLvw
Post Reply