Suede - Bush Hall, London 27/10/10
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
An appearance in a miniscule West London hall provides the backdrop for the Britpop overlords to pre-empt a Best Of album and massive arena show before the end of the year and once again, the 400 odd patrons of Bush Hall are treated to a greatest hits set not dissimilar to the revelatory primer provided at the Royal Albert Hall show last March.
Brett Anderson is lithe and almost shirtless, still giving 110%, although the rest of the band feel slightly less caught up in the moment, particularly guitarist Richard Oakes, who despite being born in nearby Perivale doesn’t over exert himself at this sort-of-homecoming show.
Nevertheless, Suede’s remains a fearsome back catalogue – a quintessentially British pairing of grimy parochial realities with evocative escapism. Imperious B-sides ‘My Insatiable One’ and tonight’s closer ‘To The Birds’ provide evidence of their powers at the start of the last decade, although I must confess the first mental image inspired by ‘Killing Of A Flashboy’s allusion to ‘suffering for your sex by the caravenettes’ is that camping holiday episode of The Inbetweeners.
Lesser known moments get a chance to shine this evening too; even ‘Can’t Get Enough’ from maligned 1999 album Head Music becomes a gaudy T. Rex sizzler tonight. Brett introduces 1994’s ‘The Wild Ones’ as ‘our best one’ and he’s probably right. Along with Blur’s ‘For Tomorrow’ it really is one of Britpop’s true crowing glories, entreating romantic flight from small-town torpor (‘we'll ride from disguised suburban graves…’) as convincingly as anything on Born To Run.
Artists in this article: Suede
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