Manic Street Preachers at World Cafe Live, 10/06/09

World Cafe Setlist photo by Keith Hughes - "One: I am a Welshman; Two: I am a drunkard; Three: I am a lover of the human race, especially of women." Dylan Thomas

Manics in Toronto at The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Oct. 4th '09 by Kivvvi.

It’s easy to be thrilled, really. For Philadelphia fans of the Manic Street Preachers, it’s been over ten years since the band’s played the city—and even that was just a short support set for Oasis. So the fact they’re playing at all seems cause for celebration. Gigs like this tend to come with rose-tinted glasses that ensure everyone will say it is brilliant even if it is the 'crappest' thing ever. Happily for the sparse World Café crowd, though, this show is not the 'crappest' thing ever. It is actually quite good.

During a roughly ninety-minute career-spanning set, there’s something for everyone. As a thank you for waiting so patiently for their return, the Manics open with longtime fan favorite “Motorcycle Emptiness.” It’s a bit of an odd, mid-tempo start, and the set never really kicks off until a few songs later, when they launch into “Faster.” From their 1994 landmark album The Holy Bible, the song is intense, laden with heavy ideas (like most of the Manics’ output, to be fair), but bassist Nicky Wire commends the audience for their singalong, calling it the best of the tour. Sentiments like “So damn easy to cave in / Man kills everything!” never sounded so joyous. Followed with “Enola/Alone,” “Marlon JD,” and “From Despair To Where,” the crowd kicks into high gear—only to settle down again for a brief acoustic interlude from lead singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield. “This Is Yesterday” and “Masses Against The Classes” sound beautiful and understated, but the feeling of "We've waited over ten years for this. Give us rock!" is rife. And then they deliver. “Send Away the Tigers” and “You Stole the Sun From My Heart” provide huge, storming choruses. A few songs later, a raucous rendition of early gem “You Love Us” followed by “A Design For Life” round out the show, and the band famous for never doing encores keeps its word.

Throughout the set, the Manics are joking, jovial, happy to be there. The behavior stands in striking contrast to their image over the years of being too intellectual, too political, too brash, too dark, just too much—the very things that repelled many, but engendered a rabidly devoted fanbase. So though it’s tempting to be nostalgic for their more extreme balaclava-wearing days, this kinder, gentler Manic Street Preachers is solid, still up for it, and wholly satisfying. Rumor has it they’ll return to the States in support of their next album. No more thirteen-year waits, then.

Setlist: Motorcycle Emptiness, No Surface All Feeling, Peeled Apples, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh), Jackie Collins Existential Question Time, Let Robeson Sing, Faster, Enola/Alone, Marlon JD, From Despair To Where, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, This Is Yesterday (acoustic), Masses Against The Classes (acoustic), Send Away The Tigers, You Stole The Sun From My Heart, All Or Nothing / Motown Junk, Me And Stephen Hawking, Little Baby Nothing, You Love Us, A Design For Life

Manic Street Preachers - band site / label / myspace

Comments

[Keith]

The picture of the set list is actually taken by KEITH Hughes. :)
It's still in my possession.

[Carly]

Thanks for the correction Keith! It's been republished. Our apologies--thanks for use of the photo.