Manic Street Preachers & Suede

Snapped up tickets to a double-bill gig of Manic Street Preachers and Suede! They would play about 70 minutes each. There was a 25-minute interval for tech changeover. Loads of friends came for the gig too. Nice catching up during the interval. We got beers and wine at the foyer. Skipped the merch things. 

The whole gig started ten minutes earlier! Walked in to Manic Street Preachers in the middle of 'Motorcycle Emptiness' (1992). Nice. The band used a banner as a backdrop! Ha! I guess they didn't bother to do a digital thing. Although that would be so easy. The digital backdrop would be 'reserved' for Suede. 

We got pretty decent seats. Not upfront. I never want to be in the mosh pit or the first 5 rows of seats in a gig that might be kinda rowdy. Tonight's gig wouldn't be so. But I didn't want to get beer cups swung in my direction. I didn't even carry a bag. Why bother. Earplugs and a lip balm fit in the jeans' pockets. 

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

James Dean Bradfield asked the audience if we "Remember 1993?" Of course we do. He did a solo of 'Australia' (1996). It was meant to be 'Suicide is Painless' (1992), but I guess that's rather insensitive in this day and age, so he swopped it out.

It ended with 'If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next' (1998). Isn't this song even more relevant today, 25 years later? Nobody who might be new to this song needs lyrics to guess what it's saying.

I didn't bother checking against the setlist for other cities. For Singapore, Manic Street Preachers delved deep into their back catalog and played all these songs. Wow. How old did they think this audience tonight is? Hmmm. I took a look around. Old enough, I guess. LOL

SUEDE

Then Suede opened with the new-ish 'Turn Off Your Head And Yell' (2022)! Nobody at the stalls (where we were), sat down. Everyone stood up, dancing along with the band and singing. I thought that most of the audience tonight was like me, skipped watching the band at the F1 stage last year, and was thrilled that it returned to Singapore for this show. 

At 56 years old, Brett Anderson's still got it. Towards the end of the show, he firmly told people to "put those fucking phones away" because "it kills the moment", especially to those at the front whom he could see. Hahaha. Then he settled down to do an acoustic solo of 'The Wild Ones' (1994). Now, this would be a song and moment that all of us wanted to record and keep forever in the cloud, or send it out to the friends who weren't here tonight. Save for a recalcitrant few who got dirty looks, especially that idiot who turned on his flashlight while recording, most of us respectfully put our phones away.

The setlist was another journey through nostalgia. They didn't play some of the songs that I hope for, but they played quite a bit of crowd favourites. Gawwwd, is this what it is now when bands do a show in Singapore? Every older generation looks for the songs of their youth. 

I was hoping they would play 'By the Sea' (1996), but they didn't. That was fine because the band did a song from their debut album way back when — 'So Young' (1993). Did you know that 'By the Sea' was actually written in 1993, when they were recording their first album, alongside 'So Young'? That's why the opening riffs sound similar.

We were in the stalls to the right of the stage. Brett Anderson came down twice to mingle with us. How very astute. Lovely. The show had to end with 'Beautiful Ones' (1996) in a mass sing-along. Brett Anderson came down to the audience again and sweated it out. Heh.