Suede: Coming Up Tour – Edinburgh, Usher Hall
Kicking off the first date of their Coming Up tour in Edinburgh, the 90s may be gone but Suede are very much still here.
Retro album tours can be a bit of a mixed bag. Some are all too obvious exercises in padding the bank balance, whilst others feel mawkishly nostalgic, fawning over past glories to the point of being a bit sad. Last night’s punchy, all bangers, ‘hits and some bits’ set was thankfully neither of these and instead served as a fantastic reminder that Suede are one of the best live bands out there, with a back catalogue to die for.
Brett Anderson, never a man to phone it in when he could instead be flinging himself around the stage, had all the presence and energy of his former Coming Up era self out in full force. A selection of new live arrangements for tracks like Picnic By The Motorway and By The Sea showed the band as a whole were also far from going through the motions, breathing new life into some well known favourites.
Whilst much of the album are staples of their regular live set, a combination of deep cuts from the period, such as a first time outing for Have You Ever Been This Low? and a well curated selection of singles and fan favourites offered plenty to keep both the die hards and ‘I haven’t seen them since 1997’ factions of the audience happy.
They may be the self styled Outsiders of Indie, but there is still a lot of love out there for Suede, in gig-land and beyond.
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Find more information on the UK and European tour here.
Read my anniversary retrospective of Coming Up and Interview with Jane Savidge for Louder Than War here >
All words by Susan Sloan.