S

uede frontman Brett Anderson belted out “Beautiful Ones” eight years ago in Jakarta. On Saturday, before thousands of ecstatic fans, the band was back, sending concertgoers singing and rocking for a second time.

Suede, a Britpop legend from the golden age of the movement, was in town for the Saturday night concert, entertaining fans at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

On Saturday’s concert, which also featured popular Korean boy band 2 PM and British singer Taio Cruz, the five-member band’s first show in town back in 2003 before splitting up was still fresh in the memory of their ardent fans.

The band, reunited last year, decided to have another gig in the capital city, creating a frenzy among fans, who showed up despite the growing fears over recent bomb threats.

“I think we were the first band to play here after the Bali bombings. We got an amazing reaction from people here. You know, it was a great gig,” Suede bassist Mat Osman said at a press conference Friday.

He said the band believed they would have liked to play in the city again, but the 2003 break up put the brakes on that wish.

Band members said they were not put off by the recent bomb threats that have scarred the capital.

“Jakarta isn’t anything like where we come from, thank God. It’s warm [here] and we don’t have a lot of mangoes and guavas in West London. It’s perfect here,” Osman said.

The Jakarta gig was its latest after the band’s shows in England last year.

After Jakarta, the first Asian country on the band’s tour calendar, Suede heads to California, Spain, England, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The band plans to play in Tokyo and Osaka in Japan in August.

The band released The Best of Suede in London last November. The album, which comprises their greatest hits, will be released digitally in the US on March 22. Suede will also release re-mastered and expanded versions of their five albums in May and June.

“It’s the complete audio history of a band and, like any band of interest, it’s flawed, strange and sometimes beautiful,” Anderson says of the album.

When asked whether the band would create a new album with new songs, Osman said it was too early to tell. “We have no idea whether we’re going to do anything else. At the moment, we really just want to enjoy it and make sure that the shows we give are extraordinary.” Which it was.

— JP/Indah Setiawati