Fan's Review written by Weishan:
Concert Review,
30th September 1999.
The day I had been waiting for for months had finally
arrived! I was about to see Suede live for the second time! Their previous
concert in Singapore two and a half years back was truly brilliant and smashing,
and I expected nothing less this time!
My
friends and I excitedly grabbed out tour booklets and T-shirts and then went
into the concert hall. At around 8:30pm, MTV VJ Jamie appeared on stage and
announced that the band would be ready in about 15 minutes’ time.
As the time drew nearer, the tension in the air increased and the whole atmosphere was electrifying. Suddenly, the lights went out, and strains from Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini filled the air. (Coincidentally, it is my favourite piece of classical music. I fell in love with it way back when I first heard it in the movie “Somewhere in Time”.) I jumped up from my seat and screamed along with the others. (Although I bought a seating ticket, you would never find me seated in a Suede concert!) When the lighting came back slightly and we saw the band onstage, the screaming intensified.
Can’t
Get Enough kicked off the whole gig, and the crowd was certainly jumping and
singing to it! Next up were Trash and She, which really got the crowd of 4,500
fans going. In fact, it seemed that the songs from Coming were the ones which
majority of the crowd seemed more familiar with. What totally caught me by
surprise was Metal Mickey which was so great to hear live, and I totally adored
The Wild Ones. I was really glad they played older stuff like New Generation and
Animal Nitrate as well as the newer stuff from CU and HM.
The
sight of the audience swaying from side to side as the band performed Down,
Everything Will Flow and The Wild Ones, some with raised hands holding lighters,
others with linked arms, was truly a lovely scene. Brett’s voice was truly
beautiful, and it was clearly manifested in the slow songs. Added to his raw
energy which had him leaping from one spot to another and lassoing the
microphone cord, he certainly showed all who were present why Suede is such a
great band to see live. He even snatched some photographers’ cameras and took
photos with them, and then threw the cameras back to the reporters. (A local
newspaper later reported that one camera was actually damaged as it was not
caught by the photographer in time.) Brett appeared to be in a really good mood,
smiling plenty and saying “You love us!” a couple of times. He also offered
the microphone (sometimes with the stand as well!) to the audience and
encouraged us to sing along.
All would not be possible without Simon, Mat, Richard and Neil, who were all really wonderful that night too! Neil did a lot of acoustic guitar-playing in addition to his keyboard duties. (It was really commendable that he was up there and performing as he was supposed to have caught the flu.) Mat looked really cool standing there and playing his bass guitar, while Simon definitely provided us with the right beat for the whole night! Richard was as wild and great with his guitar as always, and as it was a day from Richard’s birthday, Brett actually led us in singing him a birthday song!
The
band ended the gig with a lovely performance of She’s In Fashion, which was
performed in a somewhat a cappella
style for the ending part of the song. All of us in the audience were singing
and clapping along with arms raised high up in the air. The band then went
offstage. The crowd screamed for more, and chants of “We want Suede” rang
through the air. They came back on, met by the cheers of the insatiable ones who
just can’t get enough of them! They performed a three-song encore, and ended
the concert on a glorious note with Saturday Night. After they left the stage
for the second time, we still wanted more and it was only when the lights came
on that we realized that the concert had truly ended.
30th September 1999 would certainly be one of the best and most memorable nights in my life, and I hope all who saw Suede live before enjoyed themselves as much as I did!