Ten years ago,we were here also..... Brett Anderson, on the stage of the inappropriately named Heaven, with a new guitarist, and a clutch of new-born songs written with Bernard Butler, armed with a  passion to take over the world.

And now, here we are again, the massive weight of expectation, as the most potent songwriting partnership of the past twenty years - barring Morrissey/Marr - returns for the first time in a decade in probably the most unlikely reunion in music.

Firstly, whomever chose Heaven as a suitable venue needs to have their head examined : the venue is anything but, being a cavernous, squashed box rammed to capacity where you either stand stock still for hours desperate for a drink and the toilet, or you peep through cramped sightlines to maybe catch of glimpse of someone on stage. Secondly, and perhaps partly inspired by the recent onstage murder of someone from Pantera, the venue is paranoid : bags are strip-searched and metal detectors rape your skin, and you feel like a terrorist trying to smuggle bomb out of an Oklahoma airport.

But it’s all about the music at the end of the day : and what do you get? Firstly, The Subways, being akin to one of the multitude of faux-NY-garage bands that seem to be infecting the world like a rash. Though unlike certain others I could mention, and yes, The Killers, I’m looking in your uninspired direction, The Subways are good. It might not be your type of thing, but there’s no doubt that The Subways, like the Pistols, they mean it maaaaaaaan, and there’s more passion, more life, more guts and glory than in a thousand Strokes shows. 

But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to see the debut London performance by a new band, even though they plainly aren’t new, in any way shape or form : what other ‘new’ band sells out it’s debut London show (and only it’s second show ever) to 1,000 people in fifteen minutes when it hasn’t released a record?

Expectation weighs heavy, but when you’re dealing with Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler, former Suede colleagues, as well as being behind a multitude of other stuff since their split, we’re not just talking Tweeldedum and Tweedledee. We’re talking the songwriting duo behind one of only four albums recorded in the Nineties to make The Guardians "Top 100 Albums Of All Time List" .

So what do you expect? If you expect nothing, that’s exactly what you get. What do I expect? Well, I expect something more than this : at best, a mixture of Andersons windswept, aspirant romanticism and Butler’s vast, sweeping epics that have characterised his solo albums : at worst the kind of lazy songwriting that characterised the odd Suede b-side and the type of midpaced, monotone minor-key stuff that dulled the senses about three-quarters of the way through the solo records. What do I get?

You get songs that bear no relation to anything you’ve heard before. The opener is a manifesto setting "Brave New Century", but there’s little brave about it. Like too many of the songs tonight, it’s a fairly standard, mid-paced, unexceptional song. Like the vast majority of the rest of the set, it’s an OK song.

Problem is, I want more than OK. I want nothing less than brilliance.

The problem is that there’s nothing here, not one song that grabs you by the throat with brilliance and genius. Not one song that makes you stand upo and remember why you loved this band so much . There are moments, flashes of brilliance : "Refugees", which shares a title (and possibly much more) with a song Suede played live once in 2000, is redeemed by a classic 4 bar solo that instantly evokes the spirit of glories past, but that’s about it. "Two Creatures" sounds like "You Do", but squashed and flattened, but there’s far too many unremarkable midpaced ballads that pass forgettably in the night.

Is this the new fruit of the most potent songwriting partnership of the nineties? Times change, people change, but should ambitions change? Should we blindly adore this simply because it’s Those Two? Or should w elook beyond to judge it on what  we heard.Whilst it’s an undoubted joy to see Anderson and Butler on stage again and for hatchets to be buried, this new found sense of harmony has smoothed out the rough edges of their music : the constant sense of potential implosion that always hung over the early shows has disappeared, and with it, the sense of thrilling tension is also absent. It’s almost too happy : and we all know tortured artists are more interesting, right kids?

Maybe the songs need time to grow, to become familiar. Maybe they need to be written or re-written. But on the evidence of tonight : The Tears are nothing special. Were it not for their prior history, nobody would cling this band to their chest as The Great New Hopes Of 2005. The Tears may be a new band, but they’re not doing anything new.

I cam here not to damn, but to praise. Of the new songs, only three lift themselves beyond the quagmire of identikit Butler riffs and uninspiring melodies. "Ghosts Of You" is a beautiful shimmering thing that recalls the things that only the best pop music does : mean something. "Apollo 13", thematically the typical starcrossed-lovers-until-death-and-then-a-bit-longer widscereen epic of the set is fabulous (think "Sleeping Pills", but about a hundred times better), and finally "We Are The Lovers", which is at long last a song that could, potentially, become an instant classic : the type of song that, like all good pop music, instantly tattooes itself on the inside of your brain.

It’s also the only song that evokes the spirit of why we fell in love with Suede in the first place : the widescreen, ambitious romance of perverted pop. These three gems aside, most of the set flies by in an uninterrupted strata of flattened, reheated ideas.

And with a performance like that, now is not the time for The Tears.

**STOP PRESS*

As Writing, Two new shows  for the Tears  have just been announced. They are as below:-

Sun 13th Feb : Manchester University
Mon 14th Feb : Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
Wed 16th Feb: London Astoria

Check this link for tickets

Comments

what a load of rubbish Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 06:33:27 This is a bad review. It's obscene.     I'm not going to dignify most of what you said with a response, just point out two things for you benefit.     'I think I might be going to heaven tonight' I suspect is why it was at heaven, their you go, they did appease you persistent and painful suede fans.      Heaven has lots of secrurity because it's a well known GAY club and extremists have been known to try and sneek the odd bomb in there, odd knife, gun etc. You know things you can use to kill. Thats why.     All the best!

Spot on Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 08:05:25 Absolutley agree with you. From those two we expected briliance, a collaboration of minds, talent and spirit - what we got was Head Music with a better guitarist (and that's no compliment!) Brett no longer seemed to have it as the front man being eclipsed by the stature and posing of Butler. I longed for Brett to shut up a bit and let Butler truly play, I felt like he was a caged animal trying to get out. Were was the epic exploration? Where was the drama? And as for not playing one old track - miserable! Yeah yeah they're a new band and all, but a new band with a history which was why we were all there. Just a simple nod to the past would have been enough. We were there to hear the new stuff of course but, come on, we loved suede! Play to the audience guys and not some image you have the your new selves. I so wanted to love this, I told everyone that it was going to be great, historic but the only word I could muster the following day was...disappointing

fair review Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 08:36:04 and brave since some sour suede fans can't handle anything other than cloying praise being metered on their heroes.     "Heaven has lots of secrurity because it's a well known GAY club and extremists have been known to try and sneek the odd bomb in there, odd knife, gun etc. You know things you can use to kill. Thats why." - You have issues.

markreed says Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 09:02:08 I'm terribly sorry I don't foist unquestioning praise but that's something you have to live with : it didn't work for me, and unless you've heard the songs (only about 2500 have so far) I'd suggest withholding judgement until you do. The album *may* yet be fabulous.

Graham Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 10:43:03 Just because some of your favourite artists have just written a bunch of new songs doesn't automatically make them brilliant...the reviewer is one of the most obsessive suede fans i've ever known (check out his other suede reviews here for proof) and saw the anderson/butlerof suede also, so I think he might know what he talking about.    Even our heroes and idols let us down and write crap songs sometimes, and I'm reserving judgement until the album. Mind you,if its anything like the Butler solo stuff, i can see why he's disappointed...

Written by Guest on 2004-12-19 18:44:43 quite a few people have been diehard suede fans since the beginning, but we went in with open minds, not demanding brilliance, mearly hoping for something better than the crap around these days... imo, we got that, if not verging on the brilliance you were striving for.    hero's move on, perhaps you should too.

sneaker pumps Written by Guest on 2004-12-20 06:12:39 hey, a long while ago i was critical of one of the reviews you did of one of suede's last gigs...but i don't take issue with this one. it's an opinion, and my intuition tells me it's probably quite an accurate observation you make in this review. if anything you are the "kind" of fan who should have said it was the best thing ever ever ever...it's very lame that people on the tears forum take it as a personal affront that u dare to speak your mind. i hate people like that.

stupid Written by Guest on 2004-12-20 13:38:56 This review doesn't make any sense. Therefore any opinion above is invalid.

Written by markreed on 2004-12-20 16:17:53 Looks like anything less than obseqious, unquestioning adoration is unacceptable. And since only 2,500 people have heard the Tears so far, I'm inclined to say a lot of people are basing their opinion on the past and not the present.

flashboy Written by Guest on 2004-12-23 06:27:58 one thousand per cent correct I'm afraid. i would have LOVED the tears to be brilliant. i would have accepted them as even half the band Suede were in their early years. but they were just so so so average

three great songs, though Written by Guest on 2005-01-10 16:41:45 I enjoyed your review and thought it showed an understanding of Suede and what made them so important to a lot of us. But as a "glass half full" kind of guy, I'm really looking forward to hearing the three songs you praised so highly. In this mundane world, three new great Anderson/Butler tracks could only help.    Take care...John

passing Written by Guest on 2005-02-10 19:22:46 pretty song, cool performance    security was tight cos barman from heaven club was stabbed to death last autumn

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