Garbage

Edinburgh Festival Theatre

What do you think of it so far?

It’s apparent that a new generation of Garbage fans watching the 20 Years Paranoid tour have reproduced the various shades of Shirley Manson with bright pink, vivid red and marmalade-orange hair. Goodbye Mr Mackenzie frontman Martin Metcalfe looks out from the dress circle as his former backing singer appears back-lit while performing Afterglow, the first of many numbers that nod to the lost art of the B-side. Manson’s soft Scottish tones are all over

Thirteen, and you soon realise why this was Alex Chilton’s favourite Big Star cover.

Interludes from classic sci-fi movies including Roy Batty’s monologue at the end of Blade Runner abets the futuristic aesthetic. When I Grow Up benefits from a solid, less poppy arrangement, while a more faithful crack at I Think I’m Paranoid allows the heavy machinery of the Garbage sound to fill this bygone theatre as Manson stalks the stage. Her salty Scottish laughter fills the air after a few technical hiccups which seem to matter little on home soil, especially with her namesake aunt Shirley in the audience.

An encore of The Trick Is To Keep Breathing is transformed into a haunting torch song that’s elevated by the setting. It’s 45 years since Ziggy Stardust trod these boards, and Manson offers an emotional Bowie tribute before a final encore of Starman. Only Garbage could make it sound like something from a David

Lynch film.