After a long year of traveling and performing around Europe, Manic Street Preachers brought their 2022 tour over to North America. Last night (November 3), the sonically-unpredictable band kicked things off with a performance at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. Along with them is the equally-impactful glam of Britpop group The London Suede, who Preachers toured with for the first time back in 1994. The two Britpop darlings are sharing the headlining spotlight, with each band taking turns opening for the other on their short 12-show tour of North America. For the tour’s opening night, Suede closed out the show.
Although The London Suede is coming off the release of Autofiction, their latest effort, their time on stage was equally distributed throughout their discography. The band kicked their set off with the same song they started their 2022 album with, the melodically manic “She Still Leads Me On”. The band also performed “15 Again”, “Personality Disorder”, and “Shadow Self” from the LP. Suede also reached all the way back to their seminal self-titled debut from ‘93 to help round out the setlist. The band played classics like “Animal Nitrate” and “The Downers” from the album while also performing B-sides like “Metal Mickey” and “So Young”. The rest of their 15-song set looked deeper into their discography as they performed songs like “I Don’t Know How To Reach You” and “We Are The Pigs”, just to name a few.
The openers of the night, Manic Street Preachers were equally welcoming to the deepest corners of their discography. Almost exactly a year prior to their touring mates, Preachers released The Ultra Vivid Lament, their first album since 2018, although not a single song from their recent LP made it onto last night’s setlist. With a prolific release schedule, the band was able to bounce around to different eras of their sound, starting with 1992’s Generation Terrorists. Their first song of the night was “Motorcycle Emptiness” off of the LP, Preachers also performed “You Love Us” from the album. The band also leaned heavily on their seminal 1998 album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. They performed “You Stole the Sun from My Heart”, “The Everlasting”, “Tsunami” and the fan favorite, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”. While the rest of their setlist bounced from one album to the next, the band wasn’t afraid to step outside of their own catalog. They covered “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult and Johnny Mandel’s “Suicide is Painless”, the theme from the hit TV show “MASH”.
The unsung heroes of the U.K rock scene are continuing their tour on November 5 at The Warfield in San Francisco. The band will have stops in Austin, Philadelphia, and round things up in Toronto at the end of the month. Check out the full setlist from each band, full tour dates, and footage from last night’s show below:
