Usher Hall, EdinburghBrett Anderson climbs monitors and vaults up to high notes in an energetic, irresistible performance of their 1996 album
“It doesn’t matter how many times they grind us down!” roars Brett Anderson in a shouted-word addendum to glam-banging outsider anthem Trash, milling his winklepicker into the stage as if aggressively extinguishing a cigarette. A 25th anniversary celebration of Suede’s 1996 classic Coming Up – an album front-loaded with three Top 10 singles – was always liable to ignite quickly. And yet the Edinburgh audience still seem momentarily stunned by the ferocity with which the band and their thin streak of 54-year-old frontman assault their senses.
Reunited 11 years now, nearly as long they lasted first time around from 1989 to 2003, the Londoners are overdue a nostalgia trip after three strong new albums since 2013. How better, following the pandemic’s dispiriting long pause, than with the record that propelled Suede to the stars just when they looked chucked on the dump? Their first album with miraculous teenage guitarist Richard Oakes (replacement for the seemingly irreplaceable Bernard Butler), Coming Up threw pop muscle behind Anderson’s sinuous songwriting and decadent epicene image, helping mixed-up small-town boys and girls everywhere suddenly feel like they belonged.