Band’s crowdpleasing set barely missed a beat as they deliver hit after hit
Supergrass live at Bristol Sounds, Bristol Harbourside, 25 June 2025
★★★★☆
“My daughter got married last night!” Gaz Coombes proudly informs the crowd as Supergrass headline the opening evening of the latest Bristol Sounds series on the city’s harbourside. “I was off me tits. ‘One more drink’…”
If the fourpiece’s frontman is still feeling the after-effects of his family celebrations the following day, you’d never have known it. The band’s crowdpleasing set barely missed a beat.
It’s an amusing counterpoint, though – the now nigh-on 50-year-old Dad and head of his family here to deliver the 90s’ finest anthems of teenage abandon. There’s the passage of time right there in a nutshell…
These latest Supergrass shows are built around the 30th anniversary of their landmark debut album I Should Coco. It remains a set text from the era. A straight-out-of-the-box slice of brilliance, the LP was a hugely confident opening statement packed with hooks galore as well as a youthful sense that anything was possible.
So our setlist here sees the band play Coco in its entirety followed by seven choice cuts from across the rest of their career.
Picture credit: Holly Bradley
I Should Coco
The multi-part punk-pop of I’d Like To Know and cannabis deal gone wrong tale Caught By The Fuzz make for giddily frantic openers, a pace maintained with a breezy romp through Mansize Rooster. And pogoing predictably breaks out en masse for Supergrass’ biggest hit Alright. An overplayed Britpop mainstay it may be, but it still can’t fail to raise a smile.
The band may be forever tagged with the breezy optimism of that particular track but it was only ever one facet of their songwriting. That’s evidenced in the cocksure confidence of Lenny’s delay and release intro – which always lasts a little longer than you think – and Time’s languid groove. Meanwhile, Sofa (Of My Lethargy) also proved I Should Coco wasn’t merely a string of race-you-to-the-end punkiness.
By album two, of course, the band were at pains to shake off their cheeky image. In It For The Money’s key single Richard III saw them succeed on that front in style and won the biggest response of the night here.
Picture credit: Holly Bradley
See The Sights And Feel Alright
If the band’s innate sense of melody can sometimes be overlooked, then step forward Late In The Day and Moving to state their case. Likewise, the Hammond-led Mary was another leisurely highlight.
They still had a little left in the tank, though. Rather than leaving us with a lighters-in-the-air anthem the band encored with the ebullient one-two punch of Sun Hits The Sky and Pumping On Your Stereo.
These validatory reunion shows have reasserted their national treasure status. Wouldn’t it be terrific if they could get it together in the studio, too, for a seventh album?
Featured image credit: Holly Bradley
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