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A review from 5D Music & Theatre writer Maria Robertson.
Photos by Dod Morrison Photography: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100031192597676
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The support for the evening came from Aircooled. Aircooled are Oliver Cherer, Justin Welch (previous drummer with Elastica and at one point Suede) and Katharine Wallinger (The Wedding Present). Their artwork is by Mew who joins them on acid synthesizer at shows. The started their set with their new single Hyperproduktiv! Having heard they were mainly instrumental I was relieved to hear lyrics, as I love words and a story, although soon realised the lyrics were…limited…to that one word mainly! It was still great though, I was soon happily singing along!
The second song was instrumental, and went on just a few years too long for me – even the photographers stopped snapping, although they are allowed to take photos for the first 3 songs. Oliver said their set wouldn’t have time for more than 3 songs, so they obviously aimed to have it like that. They are a well greased machine, playing well together and I did enjoy the first song, and the start of the second. They are also quite mesmerising visually, so certainly worth checking out!
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It is a worry seeing a band you loved 20-30 years ago. How will they be after all these years? Luckily this is definitely not something that we need to worry about with Suede. Brett Anderson is still as full of energy as he ever was, still as svelte as he ever was, and still as crazy a dancer as he has ever was! The whole band seem to have aged well and they play brilliantly together. Anderson’s vocals have not changed over the years, he still has an amazing voice and it was a delight to finally experience it live. I am sad that it’s taken me this long to see them, but at least I’ve done it now. Felt even worse when he said that Sleeping Pills came out 30 years ago this month, on 29th March 1993 to be exact.
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They played a mixture of their new and more recent materials, starting with Toybay, Personality, including Animal Nitrate and Wild Ones. This last was done as a solo, just Brett and his guitar, and was one of those hairs on the back of your neck raisers.
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The encore was Beautiful Ones and the crowd really did go wild. All the way though Brett had been giving it the “come on” and lots of appropriate hand gestures to get the crowd going. Not that we needed it, there was a lot of love in the room for those fine gents on stage. Must admit I had even more love for Brett when he took the time after the gig to come and sign tickets and pose for photos with myself and the other adoring fans who were waiting in the cold. As if he had not given us enough already.
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Now I just hope they get planning the next tour, next time I want to be on the front rail where he was hugging heads and shaking hands throughout the set. At one point he even came out into the crowd, a plan that was slightly hindered by the cable on his microphone and a pillar – although worked well for my friend and I as it brought him back closer to us!
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Suede totally justify 30 years of my love and adoration, I now regret all the live listening opportunities I’ve missed.
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Further information: https://www.suede.co.uk/ and http://www.aircooledmusic.co.uk/
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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.
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