Concert Review: The London Suede and Manic Street Preachers at ACL Live

Concert Review: The London Suede and Manic Street Preachers at ACL Live: UK double-bill transcends Britpop nostalgia in Austin.

The crowd that gathered at ACL Live for the co-headlining tour of The London Suede and the Manic Street Preachers were a rare breed: middle-aged Anglophiles who went gaga for the Britpop scene of the mid-90’s, along with other UK acts that were shoehorned into the sub-genre (i.e. the Manics, who never quite fit into that box).

While that scene exploded in the UK, offering Brits a respite from Grunge, it never truly caught on in the States beyond cult status, which is why Austin fans were impatient to see two English acts that hadn’t played stateside in 25 years.

Britpop become synonymous with the Blur vs. Oasis feud, but one of the first band’s brandished with the label was Suede (due to legal issues, they go by “The London Suede” in the U.S.), a melodramatic act that fused the best bits of 70’s glam and 80’s post-punk into a molotov cocktail of decadent, hormonal anthems.

And they did not disappoint those who have pining for their return for years, taking the opening slot at ACL Live with apex predator tenacity, offering a no-frills show that kept things vibrant and primal.

The group opened with Turn Off Your Brain and Yell, a stomping track off their excellent new album Autofiction, with drummer Simon Gilbert’s thunderous tom-toms, Richard Oakes’ piercing guitars and frontman Brett Anderson’s unholy wail bringing the crowd to his feet.

Anderson was a fireball of energy throughout the set, sweating through his white buttoned-down shirt, his trademark floppy mod haircut mopped with perspiration.

He kept things at a fever pitch, commanding the audience to sing along, swinging his mic cord like a whip, often leaping into the crowd, while the band dove into classic cuts like 120 Minutes staple Metal Mickey, playful glam vamp The Drowners, the wistful So Young and the erotically charged Animal Nitrate (all off the group’s self-titled 1993 debut).

The band then covered other sonic terrain, dusting off old gems like the electronica fueled banger Can’t Get Enough, the bombastic romance of It Starts and Ends With You (off 2012 reunion album Bloodsports), and new goth-tinged tracks Personality Disorder and Shadow Self.

The band’s decadent sophomore album Dog Man Star also got some love, from the proggy We Are The Pigs (which ended with Anderson screaming “burn it all fucking down!”), to one of their best:The Wild Ones, where Anderson, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, captivated the Gen-X crowd.

1996’s Coming Up was featured most prominently: opening track Trash slayed, She pummeled with its spy-theme theatrics, and  keyboardist Neil Codling imbued pathos on the piano driven ballad By The Sea, with Anderson emoting heartbreak as only he can deliver.

The group finished the set with the anthemic The Beautiful Ones, with the audience belting its “la, la, la la la la la” refrain to deafening effect. The band then exited, leaving the lasting impression that they sound stronger now than in their heyday.

The Manic Street Preachers followed in short order, eschewing their most recent album (2021’s The Ultra Vivid Lament), instead opting for more vintage, iconic cuts.

The group opened with the stirring You Stole The Sun From My Heart off 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, followed by frontman/guitarist James Dean Bradfield declaring “We’re from the 90’s, the noughties and the now”, which could have doubled as a title for the tour.

Fan favorite Everything Must Go brought the crowd to its feet, with Bradfield spinning in circles as he blasted out a wonderfully lyrical guitar solo. Ocean Spray was as effervescent and inviting as its title, causing the crowd to break into dance.

The group dusted off their unique take of Suicide Is Painless (aka the theme from MASH), before bassist Nickey Wire (clad in a pink feather boa) dedicated the punkish Slash ‘n’ Burn to guitarist Richey “Manic” Edwards, who disappeared in 1995 (and is now presumed dead).

Speaking of Slash, (and N’), the group offered a faithful cover of Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child O’Mine which fit Bradfield’s soaring falsetto to sublime effect, before launching into the haunting If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next, a fitting title given our recent midterm election cycle.

The Manics closed the set with the one-two punch of You Love Us off 1992’s Generation Terrorists and working class anthem A Design For Life before leaving the stage to boisterous applause.

The rapturous enthusiasm of the crowd showed that 25 years later, both bands continue to cast a spell their fans can’t shake. Yet it also laid bare the possibility that this might be the last time Suede and the Manics hit stateside ever again. If that’s the case, they left one hell of an indelible musical memory.