suede

[blue_mai]

i saw Suede at the o2 last night. was good. funny how Richard still looks so different, i mean i know he can't catch up, in age, but you'd have thought that maybe he would have blended in a bit by now, but he sort of looks like he could be in another band. Brett was in good voice, and did plenty of pogoing and mic-swinging. with all the songs mixed together, i still feel that the songs from the first two albums (and B-sides) are in a different league to the later, good pop songs but without the magic. can't think of anything that comes close to the vocals on so many of the earlier tracks - lyrically kinda nonsense that sounds good (like T-Rex) but with incredible emotional conviction and the thing, the real thing, is the way every sigh and breath and pitched falsetto and everything is just so fucking good and, well, the opposite of throwaway or not giving a fuck. and then the way the band comes together and builds and swells and makes the magic happen. with that sort of investment comes inevitable absurdity and the moments when Brett falls to his knees on stage in melodramatic angst are kinda daft but it's just expression. it's staged yet it's real. hmm.

also, strange moments when watching the band actually being separate individual people playing different parts, in my head it's just a single unified voice, even though you can pick out instruments, obviously, it just feels like one thing.

highlights: Pantomime Horse, The Drowners, Wild Ones, Asphalt World though they only played the first half.

also, just came across this old live set, some awful compression issues, but from a charity gig in 1993: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=x93yzBNuj-8