Suede have kicked off the first of their upcoming events at London’s Southbank Centre, and played fan-favourites and upcoming ‘Antidepressants’ album in full. Check out footage and the setlist below.
The show took place last night (August 26) at the iconic London venue, and came ahead of the release of their 10th studio album ‘Antidepressants’, which is set to arrive on September 5.
For Suede, the forthcoming release is centred around “the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world,” and at the live show yesterday, frontman Brett Anderson and co broke out the tracklist in full.
“Good evening, London! We are Suede,” he said at the beginning of the show, “It’s nice having you nice and close like this. I like it!” From there, the band broke out back-to-back renditions of the new songs, starting with ‘Disintegrate’, ‘Dancing With The Europeans’, the title track, ‘Sweet Kid’, ‘The Sound And The Summer’, ‘Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star’ and ‘Broken Music For Broken People’.
Others completing the tracklist for ‘Antidepressants’ were ‘Trance State’, ‘Criminal Ways’, ‘Trance State’ and ‘June Rain’, and before closing with ‘Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment’ – Anderson spoke about another album on the way at some point this decade.
“This is our second black and white album of the 2020s,” he said, referring to 2022’s ‘Autofiction’. “There will be a third black and white album. And then we will go to a different colour! This is the last song on the second album of our black and white period. This is ‘Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment’.”
For the encore, Suede broke out an array of rarities from their current post-reformation era albums 2013’s ‘Bloodsports’, 2016’s ‘Night Thoughts’, 2018’s ‘The Blue Hour’, and the aforementioned ‘Autofiction’.
Check out more footage and the setlist below.
Suede’s setlist for the ‘Antidepressants Live And In The Round’ show was:
‘Disintegrate’
‘Dancing With The Europeans’
‘Antidepressants’
‘Sweet Kid’
‘The Sound And The Summer’
‘Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star’
‘Broken Music For Broken People’
‘Trance State’
‘Criminal Ways’
‘Trance State’
‘June Rain’
‘Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment’
ENCORE
‘Snowblind’
‘She Still Leads Me On’
‘Personality Disorder’
‘Shadow Self’
‘No Tomorrow’
‘Tides’
‘Turn Off Your Brain And Yell’
‘The Only Way I Can Love You’
‘It Starts And Ends With You’
‘Outsiders’
The show last night marked the first of Suede’s Southbank takeover events planned for August and September, running across six nights. Up next, on September 12, they will revisit the up-close-and-personal 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones, at the Centre – discussing its highs and lows with Miranda Sawyer and director Mike Christie in a live Q&A.
On September 13 and 14, they will play two shows full of classic tracks and new material, alongside Bloodworm and Gazelle Twin, who join as special guests.
On September 17, they will play an intimate, off-mic show in the Purcell Room, before closing things off on September 19 with their first-ever full orchestral headline show. This will be held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in collaboration with the Paraorchestra.
Last month, Suede spoke to NME around the release of their single ‘Dancing With The Europeans’, which arrived with a music video filmed at a secret gig at London’s iconic Bush Hall, and Anderson revealed his approach to commanding the live stage.
“Playing live is all about confidence – or the illusion of confidence, which is the same thing,” he said. “People don’t want to see a stumbling, apologetic performer – they want to see someone who seems to command a sense of magic. It’s a quasi-religious thing. The lead singer is the high priest and the audience are the acolytes.
“That sounds hierarchical, but you’re all after the same thing. You’re all after the sense of connection: you’re doing something that’s bigger than any individual. We have in politics, we have it in sport, and we have it in music as well.”
“When it goes well with Suede, I do feel like there’s a real magic in the room. I’ve learned to get better at manufacturing that magic,” he added. “That sounds like a cynical word to use, but you just learn how to do it and engage with the audience, how to tease that energy out.
“Little venues like Bush Hall are absolutely fantastic and I love them. You can really get up close to the audience. I love getting up close to the audience physically. I love touching them, getting that feedback, diving in there. I love the messy drama of playing gigs.”
