Manic Street Preachers at The Olympia Theatre

Manic Street Preachers at The Olympia Theatre, 20th of September 2013

It was fitting that the world’s best-read band Manic Street Preachers would play in Dublin on this night of all nights – Culture Night – as the country’s artistically inclined descend upon the capital for a series of free events covering all artistic disciplines. After all not many bands have the wherewithal to write compelling, thought-provoking songs about the Spanish Civil War, Hillsborough and socialism, liberally utilising quotes from the great, good and evil of politics, art and literature as they go.

The cover art of the band’s new album ‘Rewind the Film’ forms the typically unfussy set-design as the lights dim in The Olympia Theatre and the Manic Street Preachers burst on to the stage performing Motorcycle Emptiness from their début album ‘Generation Terrorists’. Over twenty years later the band still visibly revels in its delivery as James Dean Bradfield continues to out-Slash Slash with teenage intensity, twirling across the stage as Nicky Wire delivers his signature bass strut star-jump combo in a suitably outrageous crushed red velvet suit with glitter and sunglasses on his face.

Unlike many bands with a new album under their belts Manic Street Preachers showed respect to their fans by not overloading the performance with new songs, instead wedging them in between the hits and fan favourites such as Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, You Stole The Sun From My Heart, and Just The End Of Love.

The band was joined on stage by Cate Le Bon (who provided support) sharing vocal duties on 4 Lonely Roads with Nicky Wire who took over guitar duties while Bradfield moved to bass. The song was dedicated to recently deceased poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. Wire’s vocals are much maligned but 4 Lonely Roads is the highlight of his singing career to date. When James Dean Bradfield sings Richard Hawley’s vocals on Rewind The Film it’s as if he has been possessed by the evil spectre of Frank Sinatra as he delivers a faultless and haunting vocal which outshines Richard Hawley’s album performance in the process.

You Love Us acts as a seamless time-warp between past and present with Bradfield delivering an Oscar winning performance in the role of guitar-God before If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next unites the crowd in a way SIPTU can only dream of.

James Dean Bradfield takes center-stage for a spine-tingling solo couplet of This Sullen Welsh Heart and The Everlasting which showcase his formidable talents as a singer-songwriter and a showman. His voice is unexpectedly robust in such a setting and he easily captivates the audience with the palpable emotion in his vocal delivery leaving world-renowned singer-songwriters in his wake.

When the band returns Nicky Wire is dressed in a formal white sailor’s uniform. He dedicates Revol to guitarist Richey Edwards, reminiscing about having a Sunday dinner in Blooms Hotel in 1992 the first time the band played in Dublin. An excellent rendition of Tsunami quickly follows before the trumpets returns for 30 Year War and Ocean Spray. Side by side the connection between 2001’s ‘Know Your Enemy’ and ‘Rewind the Film’ is brought into sharp focus with the latest record appearing to be a more concise investigation of the musical influences that permeate songs such as Ocean Spray.

The rage returns for one last explosion with hard-core fan favourite Motown Junk bringing Manic Street Preachers back to 1990. Twenty-three years on it hasn’t lost any of its razor blade antiestablishmentarianism wit and revelry. A Design For Life suitably concludes the performance with a class war sing-along charting the importance of libraries. Manic Street Preachers may not have been free entry but they were the undoubted cultural highlight of Culture Night.