Concert Review: Super Furry Animals at O2 Brixton Academy, London

Chris Griffiths
1 hour ago
2 min read

Black-and-white concert stage with a band playing under bright spotlights and an abstract glowing backdrop.

After ten years away, the Super Furry Animals are back! The hugely important band who formed in the 1990’s, taking us on a sonic journey through their genre-bending career, aren’t just important to the indie scene of the time, but the musical culture of Wales itself. Eccentric, hook-laden, and unapologetically political – the band have been a cornerstone of the British experimental music scene. In the O2 Brixton Academy this evening, the lights were low and the fog thick. Somewhere in the murk, shapes were moving - silhouettes assembling around the stage, adding layers to an atmospheric drone that hangs in the room like something about to happen. Slowly, almost gently, the intro bleeds into "Wherever I Lay My Phone (That's My Home)", the band taking position and frontman Gruff Rhys stepping forward holding a screen aloft. Two words, the lyrics: SFA OK. The crowd knew exactly what that means. The familiar tones and audio continue surfacing through the haze before a natural slide into "Rings Around The World" takes hold. The lights rose and the place erupts. That's how you open a show.

The venue sold out well in advance, and the atmosphere inside carried the weight of an audience that has been waiting a long time for this. Reformed for the tour, the band played 22 songs across the night, The set that pulling from every corner of the catalogue and leaves very little on the table. Whether you came for indie, psychedelic rock or EDM, there was something for you, accompanied as always by Gruff Rhys’ beautifully melancholic tones.

"Do or Die" and "Golden Retriever" followed on early in the set, and the crowd continued to go crazy. "Something 4 the Weekend" got the whole floor moving, while "Focus Pocus / Debiel" remained as unhinged and brilliant as always. Mid-set, "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" and "Ice Hockey Hair" sat side by side - two very different textures, both very SFA.

There was space in the evening for the deeper cuts too. "Ymaelodi â'r Ymylon" and "Nythod Cacwn" were delivered from their self-published Welsh language album Mwng, loud, and warmly received. "Demons" and "Receptacle for the Respectable" reward the long-term faithful, while "God! Show Me Magic" feels exactly as the title suggests.

They closed the main set with "Mountain People", "Slow Life", and "Night Vision" - the pace dropping just enough to let the room breathe before the inevitable finish. The encore belonged entirely to "The Man Don't Give a Fuck", repeated and relentless, the whole place chanting it back for nearly 15 minutes, until the walls feel like they might move. This was the classic ending to a SFA set, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.