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Super Furry Animals played their first shows since 2009 (pics from London's Brixton Academy & updated dates

by Rachel Juarez-Carr

Super Furry Animals @ Brixton Academy 5/8/2015
Super Furry Animals
Super Furry Animals

Super Furry Animals have been mostly on hiatus since 2009, but now they’re back as a boiler-suited, laser-firing gang of musical superheroes to celebrate the 15th birthday of their all-Welsh-language, all-beautiful-sounding album Mwng (newly rereleased by Domino). They’ve taken time off from their other bands — such as Cian Ciaran’s Zefur Wolves and Guto Pryce’s Gulp — to play a quick tour and hit some festivals, and lot of people are very happy to have them back, even if it is just for the summer (so far no word on what happens after that).

They brought everything everyone wanted them to bring to the Brixton Academy on Friday (May 8): yeti costumes, a Power Ranger helmet, a so-pretty-it’s-almost-like-being-high light show and a two-and-a-half-hour tour through everyone’s favorite songs. They have so many first-class tunes that it wasn’t till the next day that I realized they’d skipped my favorite favorite songs, because my second-favorites are still so good. “Demons” and “Mountain People” were beautiful, “Fire in My Heart” and “Northern Lites” life affirming and “Hello Sunshine” had a 30-second pause before the second verse that provoked school-girl-esque screams of glee from a crowd who, if we’re honest, are no longer school-girl aged (I was 14 the first time I saw SFA, and almost lost my glasses in the mosh pit during “Something 4 The Weekend”. That was 1996.) Spontaneous “SFA OK!” chants broke out between songs; ; someone in the front row said she needed another drink because her face was starting to ache from smiling.

No one on stage said much beyond a modest “We’re Super Furry Animals” a few songs in, and the odd “danke schön” in between, till the very end when Gruff Rhys suggested the best answer to everyone’s General Election results depression would be to “get angry” (with a muffled “fuck ’em!” yelled from the back)… had there ever been a more appropriate day to end a set with “The Man Don’t Give A Fuck” than one when the country had woken up facing another five years of Tory government?

More pictures and setlist from SFA’s May 8 show at Brixton Academy, and an updated list of their upcoming dates, below…

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SETLIST: Super Furry Animals @ Brixton Academy 5/8/2015
(A) Touch Sensitive
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
Do Or Die
Ice Hockey Hair
If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You
Demons
Northern Lites
Ymaelodi â’r Ymylon
Y Gwyneb Iau
Nythod Cacwn
Pan Ddaw’r Wawr
Run! Christian, Run!
Hello Sunshine
Hometown Unicorn
Zoom!
Arnofio / Glô in the Dark
Something 4 the Weekend
Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar y Blaned Neifion
Slow Life
Juxtapozed With U
The International Language of Screaming
Golden Retriever
Receptacle For The Respectable
Fire In My Heart
Mountain People
The Man Don’t Give a Fuck

Super Furry Animals — 2015 Tour Dates
Wed 24 Jun – Sun 28 Jun Glastonbury Festival Pilton, UK
Thu 02 Jul – Sun 05 Jul Vida Festival Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
Sat 04 Jul Summer in the City Manchester, UK
Fri 24 Jul – Sun 26 Jul Fuji Rock Niigata, Japan
Fri 07 Aug – Sun 09 Aug Forgotten Fields Tunbridge Wells, UK
Thu 20 Aug – Sun 23 Aug Green Man Festival Powys, UK
Sat 29 Aug – Sun 30 Aug Victorious Festival Southsea, UK