Supported by a venue full of people in dark shirts throwing shapes, and buoyed by their Top 30 showing for the masterful union of talent and marketing that was x5, the premise of tonight’s show was, er, simple. Simple Minds played five songs from each of their first five albums. With their rich, strange melodies floating above the audience’s heads, and a frenetic lightshow, the group demonstrated just how original they were to not just incorporate their early influences – Krautrock, Velvets, Bowie, Gabriel-era Genesis – but then do something truly innovative with them.
Aside from the obvious hits (Promised You A Miracle, Love Song, I Travel), unexpected highlights came with a free-flowing 70 Cities As Love Brings The Fall and a super-charged Pleasantly Disturbed, complete with Charlie Burchill on violin. Jim Kerr resisted every opportunity to grandstand and, by the time of the closing New Gold Dream, the venue was in rapture. A concert that met and frequently exceeded every expectation.
