1,271 SUEDE, Sprints, Southampton Guildhall, Friday 24th March 2023

 

Ah, Suede, 2022’s other Comeback Kings (along with Editors)…!

Their last “big gig” (ironically here, back in April 2019, gig 1,134), was a slightly disappointing affair, with substandard (then) new material leading me to consider 90’s glam pop auteurs and Bowie acolytes Suede somewhat past their recorded best (a few dickheads in the audience also pissing me off a tad). However their stunning 2022 release “Autofiction” seriously put paid to any thoughts that they might be a spent force, roaring back with a swaggering, punkish vim and vigour largely absent since that irresistibly vital first 2 album salvo back in the early 90s. A roaring, in-your-face CD release show at Bristol Fleece (gig 1,242; and yes, that does say The Fleece!) last September put them securely back on our “Dance Card” – in fact, at the end of the first Fleece number “She Still Leads Me On” (a track that ultimately proved my favourite of 2022), I turned to Rachel and said, “so we’re booking tix for the main tour, right?”, her immediate response being, “hell YEAH!”

 Unfortunately, after securing tix for a return to Southampton, family circumstances conspired against Rachel joining me for this one, but luckily old 90’s friend Robynne was able to step in at (very) short notice. So we hit the road for a swift drive to the South Coast, running into Robynne’s friend Katie and her daughter Madelaine in the main queue before decamping to the O2 Priority for easier entrance, pitching up a couple of rows back, house left and passing the time with some 90’s Level 3 chat! My favourites Desperate Journalist had been added as part-tour support, but not for this gig (D’oh!), so instead we had Sprints, hot off the plane from their native Dublin this afternoon. However, it didn’t take long before they made me not miss Jo and Co. so much, setting to their task with impressive urgency, vitality and dynamism. Opener “Ticking” featured a Mysterines-like eerie backbeat intro launch into a full-on roaring punk rock “take it away!” hook, roared by the stridently larynxed vocalist Karla Chubb; “Heavy” was all creepy seething Goth-lite post-punk with a Bauhaus “Dark Entries”-esque descending opening riff, and “Modern Job” showed an A House-like penchant for circular, repetitive lyricism over its’ careering base. “How Does The Story Go?”, the more sedate outlier of the set with a nonetheless squalling feedback outro, ceded to “Literary Mind” (“It’s been A-Listed on Radio 6!” boasted Karla, before commenting about the small cheer, “my imposter syndrome really needed that mediocre [response]!”) which upped the ante again, an urgent dark powerpop build to a hurtling, nagging choral hook, and my highlight of an overall rather excellent set. This lot’d utterly slay at, say, The Joiners…!

 

More chat took us up to (and just past!) 9, a white noise soundtrack heralding the entrance of Suede, vocalist Brett Anderson on last, already exhorting the crowd to clap along to the metronomic backbeat of glam sleaze opener “Turn Off Your Brain And Yell”. By the soaring hook of a strident “15 Again” Brett was atop his monitor, offering the crowd his mic, and by 4^th number, Bowie-esque debut “The Drowners”, he was in the photo pit (not for the last time!), getting right in the faces of the front rows, ourselves included. “You’ve had a couple of gin and tonics; it’s time to release the animal!” he announced by way of intro to the anthemic “Animal Nitrate”, the devoted replying in kind to the soaring hook. The man’s up for it tonight, no messing!

 

This was a considerably better showing than their last gig here, 4 years ago; “Trash”, their manifesto number, was all inclusive and soaring, the hook practically raising the roof. Brett was everywhere, prowling from side to side onstage like a caged wolverine, constantly beckoning for more noise from the crowd, sweating profusely and really putting in a shift. That said, the set mid-section lulled a little for me, a stately slow-burn “Invisibles” and a “communal moment” plaintive voice/ piano only “Everything Will Flow” notwithstanding, and I was hoping for something to really kick the gig on. We got it – and how! – with an incendiary “She Still Leads Me On”, coupled with the creepy proto-goth atmospherics and tense, echoey hook of “Shadow Self”. Brilliant! Back in the room then, with Brett commenting their 1992 Joiners gig, “felt like something was happening,” (I was at the Old Trout the night before, me! Gig 211…) before a fiery end to the set, featuring an impassioned, “Sweet Thing”-like “Wild Ones” and the angular slashing riffery of “Metal Mickey”. “New Generation” capped the set, before a lengthy encore of “Beautiful Ones”, Brett leading us in the “la la la-la la-la-la” refrain, rounded off an overall refreshing and redemptive 1 ½ hour performance.

 Lists too for Robynne and myself (I thought we’d missed out as we were being moved on, but a roadie brought out some spares just in time!), then a slight diversion through Winchester still saw us making good time home. Despite a mid-set lull, then, this was a splendid gig from Suede; the comeback is complete!