This would be the first time I had seen Suede for a few years and probably the 6th or 7th time I have seen them overall. The first time was at the sadly long defunct Old Trout in Windsor back in June 1992. After hearing the new album ‘Antidepressants’ I was quite excited for this gig. But before I tell you how it was let me tell you about the support band, Bloodworm. They are George Curtis, Euan Stevens, and Chris Walker from Nottingham. They have a strong post punk feel, added shoegaze elements, a sprinkling of dark goth and a huge injection of metal. Their riffs were piledriving and the crowd seemed to love them. Their massive sound hits you head first like a runaway fully laden express train and it feels fucking good! This band may well be huge one day.
Finally it was time for Suede to hit the stage for this sell out show. The band are clearly, and rightly, so confident in the new album that the first three songs in the set were lifted from it: “Disintegrate”, “Dancing With The Europeans” and the title track “Antidepressants”. They sound like they have been part of classic Suede sets for years, but that can’t be true! “Dancing With The Europeans” was one of many highlights for me. Most of the hits were there “Trash”, “Animal Nitrate”, “So Young”, “Metal Mickey” and “New generation”. The latter was making its 2026 tour debut. The song the raised the crowd to a level of mass hysteria though was “Beautiful Ones” as Brett encouraged us all to sing along to that magnificent “la la la la” refrain while we were “shaking our bits to the hits”. Brett Anderson is 58 years old, but that never shows. He is a true showman and worked the stage like he owned it as he welcomed us all to Suedeworld once again. This was a fiery, bombastic, explosive set from a band once again at their peak. It was capped with a goosebumps inducing two song encore of “The Only Way I Can Love You” (from ‘Autofiction’) and “Saturday Night” (from ‘Coming Up). I thought that Suede were good the first time I witnessed them nearly 34 years ago, but who knew they would become such a great band. Even after all this time they get better and better!
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog. You can also follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 