Whenever a band from the ’90s decides to go on tour to celebrate the anniversary of a landmark record, the word “nostalgia” rears its ugly head. Is is nostalgia or is it a celebration? Are they rehashing or reimagining? Either way, who really fucking cares is the question that should be asked. In the case of Garbage and their “20 Years Queer” tour, a lot of people do. And that’s really all that matters.
Garbage is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their critically acclaimed, self-titled debut record which has just been released as a special edition two CD or 2 LP set. 1995 was one hell of a year for Shirley Manson and company as they won three Grammys and went on to sell more than 4 million copies worldwide.
The rerelease of the album is remastered from the original analog tapes and of course includes the hits “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” and “Stupid Girl,” but more importantly includes all of the B-sides, or G-sides as they call them, released from 1995-1996. It’s interesting to see what songs Garbage deemed not worthy to make the first cut while also showcasing the true depth and creativity that was brewing early on.
The setlist that night of course pulled almost exclusively from the self-titled masterpiece and the many G-sides that accompany it, but there were also several other gems performed to round out the set including “Bad Boyfriend” and “Why Do You Love Me.”
Garbage are finishing up the recording of their sixth album, described by Manson as a romantic record. As she recently told Gigwise in an interview, “I don’t feel like any of our records yet are ‘romantic’ – I don’t really think in terms of romance, ever, but this is probably the closest I’ll get to being romantic.”
Bottom line: Garbage sound better than ever live and their self-titled masterpiece holds up beautifully.
Check out high res photos in the gallery here.
