Garbage and Skunk Anansie rocked Cardiff Castle with some unmistakable 1990s female-fronted attitude
“In 32 years, I’ve never had to do that before… it must be something in the air in Cardiff.”
Skunk Anansie are on stage in front of a packed out crowd at Cardiff Castle, and their powerhouse frontwoman Skin is taking her trousers off.
“I didn’t realise how heavy they were,” she quips as the huge parachute pants come off and are replaced by a pair of loose black trousers.
“It’s so hot!”
It certainly is. A series of gigs in the capital this week are coinciding with the promise of record-breaking temperatures for Wales.
Earlier, thunder cracked over the city’s skies but by the time warm-up act Du Blonde came on, the rain had cleared and the crowd was ready to party.
And what a party. Skunk Anansie and Garbage are two era-defining bands with frontwomen billed as among the most commanding in rock history – and they didn’t disappoint.
This was the penultimate stop of a major co-headline UK tour by the alt-rock icons.
Skipping on stage to a roaring crowd in her aforementioned parachute pants, Skin climbed up on an amp, jumped off and launched into opening number This Means War – it’s heavy riffs and political vocals setting the tone for the rest of the night.
Charlie Big Potato followed and the audience were whipped up into a satisfying level of punky rowdiness by a series of hits – Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good), Weak and Twisted (Everyday Hurts) – sprinkled with some of the four-piece band’s newer releases, including An Artist is An Artist from their 2019 album The Painful Truth.
By the second half of the set, the castle was ablaze, with Skin leaping into the crowd to surf over their heads and instructing them on how to start a mosh pit.
Praising Garbage, saying they’re “so lucky to tour with them”, the band from London – also made up of Cass, Ace and drummer Mark Richardson – finished with their first ever single from 1994, Selling Jesus.
After a half-hour break for drinks refills and street food, the second part of the gig began.
The towers of amps and giant black spikes on stage for Skunk Anansie had been cleared away, and a giant octopus floated on the big screen.
On came the evening’s other commanding frontwoman.
Dressed in a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word PUNK, a kilt and heavy black boots – with her trademark red hair from the 90s swapped for bombshell blonde – Edinburgh’s Shirley Manson launched confidently into a track from her American band’s 2025 album, the heavy, high-octane There’s No Future for Optimism.
Both bands are still releasing music, and that gave their sets a freshness and energy that was contagious.
Before long Garbage broke into a smattering of their 90s hits – with Empty and I Think I’m Paranoid getting the crowd singing along at the top of their voices.
Then, taking barely a breath they plunged headlong into Stupid Girl, before taking things down a notch for the 2005 ballad It’s All Over By The Crying.
During a break in the relentless rocking, Manson returned Skunk Anansie’s praise, admitting, “it’s not an easy job” to follow the band they’ve known for 30 years.
“We have seen each other grow from the 1990s and to be here tonight in this extraordinary setting, I could cry,” she told the cheering crowd.
“It feels really magical… thank you so much.”
Swaggering through another series of high-energy anthems including Control and When I Grow Up, Manson stopped again to talk to the crowd.
Sounding close to tears, she said she was moved by the response from the Cardiff crowd, saying: “I don’t think anyone in this band expected this reaction”.
She then made an impassioned call to politicians to face up to climate change before kicking off electrifying, chest-vibrating back-to-back performances of Push It and I’m Only Happy when It Rains.
Bathed in red light, the band closed the set with “one of the weirdest songs we’ve ever written”, from their latest album – the sprawling, epic and cinematic The Day That I Met God. A sister to Skunk Anansie’s Selling Jesus.
As the city gets ready for a week of more era-defining music, this was a perfect way to start.
TK Maxx presents Depot Live at Cardiff Castle 2026 continues on Tuesday with a headlining show from Empire of the Sun. For more details on that gig and more, click here.
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