In a career that has so far lasted a quarter of a century, Suede have admirably resisted any temptation to reinvent themselves as anything other than Suede.
Tonight's show at the Roundhouse reinforces the wisdom of this approach at a show split into two sets. The first is a play through new album, Night Thoughts, and the second a greatest hits set that can draw from more effortlessly crowd-pleasing songs than any of the band's peers could call upon.
By this showing, the new album is set to carry on the band's mid-career renaissance into 2016 and beyond. Opener 'When You Are Young' fills the Roundhouse with overblown strings and swirling soundscapes, before the band come on to drive it forward with the pounding rhythms Suede turn to when looking to make an entrance (think 'Introducing the Band' from Dog Man Star).
Gigwise isn't a place for film criticism, so it seems sensible to leave comment on that side of the show for those better informed. But the overall aesthetic of the new album, on first listen, seems strong and coherent. And on a basic level the songs are up there with anything pre-Head Music.
When the band return for the second set, Head Music itself, along with A New Morning, appear to have been airbrushed from the Suede's history. You'd be hard pushed to find any Suede fans who have an issue with this approach, and the crowd tonight eagerly lap up the set that calls almost exclusively from the first three albums.
'Trash', 'So Young' and 'We Are the Pigs' sound as thrilling now as they always have. Brett Anderson's posturing and increasingly exposed puffed out chest are on the surface of it faintly ridiculous. But then if our rockstars can't get away with behaviour into their forties that no one else can then what are they for?
The Dog Man Star closing couplet of 'The Asphalt World' and 'Still Life' bring a sense of symmetry to events as they are just as overblown, portentous and brilliant as opener 'When You Are Young'.
And Suede will forever be young; even as we age around them. They are our portrait in the attic, and on nights like this just occasionally we get to drink their revitalising elixir to sustain us for the cold winter months ahead. For this reason alone they will always be relevant among a music scene that logic dictates should have left them behind a long time ago.
Suede will never change - and for that, we should be eternally grateful.
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