Supergrass
Opera House, Toronto, Canada

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I love you guys! You're soooo sexy!" shrieks an overwrought Teen Slave Girl down the phone during Supergrass' on-air pre-gig interview at local radio station "The Edge". Of hysteria, in this case. Nonplused, and appearing as if they've spent a few days rolling around their cave in a grand ol' drugtastic purple haze, the band come up with a reply. "Uh. Thanks"

Their brilliant debut album has only been out for, like, two minutes in Canada, but Grassmania is already unstoppable. Though the regular roster of duly hyped Britpop acts - Oasis, Elastica, Gene, and Menswear - have turned up for the usual gigs and adoration from that younger, more, uh, sensitive generation, the 'Grass boast a more wide spread appeal already. Or at least a much louder one.

And tonight at the Opera House, we get it all: adolescent poignancy, youthful inexperience and musical originality. And that's just the band: super-hit "Caught By The Fuzz", super-teen "Alright", super-strange "I'd Like To Know". And, as the Rolling Stone-photo-sesh fashion boys hammer out one irresistible tune after another - dunno; maybe it's Mickey's cute super-treble harmonies; maybe it's the sight of skeletal Danny sans shirt - delirious fans are driven to sling undergarments stageward.

During a dreamy, spooky new surf-psychedelia song called "Work" (I think: when Gaz was introducing it, I was studiously engaged in an attempt to set the ululating, hair-flicking, slapped-up-dolly-birds surrounding me alight) a freshly laundered brassiere sailed through the air onto Gaz's mic stand. As fitting an intro signal for "She's So Loose" as any.

Troglophenia! Teen-scream audience or no, Supergrass have a strange way of making even me feel like the desirable young Steph in that mods-of-yore film (except I keep my knickers on.) And I forget its my thirtieth birthday today, and that I am old and crabby. Magic, eh?

Melody Maker - 07 October 1995