John Scott pops along to see Suede, the band The Melody Maker called the “Best new band of 1992”, at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

Tonight is the first night of Suede’s Coming Up anniversary tour, marking an almost unbelievable 25 years since that album’s release. Coming Up was the album on which the band achieved the unachievable – not only regrouping after the loss of key member Bernard Butler but also replacing the seemingly irreplaceable with new guitarist Richard Oakes. As if to hammer the point home, lead single Trash managed to sound like the archetypal Suede song.

And it’s Trash that opens proceedings this evening. Like everyone else, Suede have been laid low recently but they hit the stage like they have never been away. Brett Anderson covers the stage with a feral energy, swinging his microphone like peak-period Daltrey, climbing monitors, crashing to his knees and rolling on the floor. The rest of the band may be less demonstrative but are equally on point. Simon Gilbert and Matt Osman provide solid, supple backing for the flurries of notes and chords Richard Oakes effortlessly pulls from his guitar strings while Neil Codling fills out the sound on keyboards and guitar.

While particularly picky pop pundits may point out a certain similarity in the Suede songbook when that template is based on deftly delivered epic hooks and riffs there is really nothing to complain about; Filmstar and Lazy following up Trash to provide a knockout opening hat trick and in fact, if you were unaware that they were playing the whole of the Coming Up album, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a greatest hits collection.

Anderson oozes star quality throughout the show; conducting the audience in a singalong with a flick of his wrist; evidently delighted to be back out in front of a crowd again and loving every moment of it. The audience love him in return. Suede is a band that have threatened to fall apart several times in their history but they are back tonight with a strength and resilience that seems barely credible.

A brief interlude – so brief that the house light remain dimmed – separates the Coming Up album from a second career retrospective set.  Have You Ever Been This Low gets its first ever live outing tonight and the climax of the evening is marked by another trio of classics: So Young, Metal Micky and Animal Nitrate, taking us back to that iconic debut album  from 1993.  A couple of hours fly by all to soon and we are sent home with New Generation ringing in our ears.  Suede are back and Coming Up trumps.

John Scott 

Set List 

Trash

Filmstar

Lazy

By the Sea

She

Beautiful Ones

Starcrazy

Picnic by the Motorway

The Chemistry Between Us

Saturday Night

Another No One

Have You Ever Been This Low? @Info[live debut]

Snowblind

Outsiders

It Starts and Ends With You

Can’t Get Enough

Killing of a Flashboy

So Young

Metal Mickey

Animal Nitrate

New Generation