By Martin Robinson

Copyright standard

“I’ll have what he’s having,” is the line that springs to mind after two hours watching Brett Anderson on stage with Suede. Lithe, febrile, effervescent, at various points in the evening he crawls around the stage on all fours, whips his microphone cord like a lion-tamer, wiggles his butt like in the early androgynous, parent-frightening good old days, and repeatedly dives into the audience to roam around the Royal Festival Hall to exhort further fever like a hybrid of Jim Morrison and a cat.

Then in this electric show’s most startling moment, while singing The Asphalt World from their revered album Dog Man Star, accompanied by just Neil Codling on keyboards, Anderson dramatically lowers the microphone and continues to deliver the song into the venue air unplugged, producing a hushed awe that crackles.

This is not so much a show as a swaggering demonstration of the power of Suede. With Richard Oakes’ scything glam-punk guitar, and Mat Osman and Simon Gilbert’s thunderous rhythm section, the band sound both huge and spiky, capable of anthems and snarling attitude. With most of the Britpop revival shows taking place there’s a sense of bringing people together to celebrate the hits we all know and love; not so with Suede. There is a serious intent to their work which is far from cosy, a drive to push themselves, and their listeners, into challenging territory which has resulted in a couple of recent albums that are as good as anything they’ve done, 2023’s Autofiction and the recently released Antidepressants.

Both albums feature heavily tonight, with Anderson reveling in their reception, particularly the outstanding title track for the new record which masterfully builds to a climax and holds it there, Oakes shredding as the frontman rallies the crowd to greater heights. Broken Music for Broken People sees him makes one of his ventures into the audience, which creates its own sense of collective celebration: not one about nostalgia, though, but about being messed up as a human and yet finding solace in this outsider music.

There’s some delicious choice cuts from the back catalogue. As well as Trash and Animal Nitrate, there’s a dazzling To The Birds – a b-side to their debut single The Drowners, which they don’t play – and a post-Asphalt World trio of So Young, Metal Mickey and Beautiful Ones that perfectly captures their essence of street grit and soaring romanticism.

This Southbank Centre takeover by the band has been a triumph, with two gigs still to come and amid all the torrid times in England now it’s actually a relief to have them still excelling at the forefront of a counter-culture.