Review: Simple Minds at the Civic Theatre

Simple Minds. Photo / Supplied

No one was wearing fingerless gloves or double belts from the 80s, the decade when Simple Minds were at their stadium-filling best. Although, the bloke who came with me to see the veteran Scottish band was wearing a mottled baby blue leather jacket and looked quite the part during Don't You (Forget About Me), the hit theme song to brat pack movie The Breakfast Club from 1985.

My mate wasn't taking the mickey, he wears that jacket quite often, and besides this gig wasn't a fashion show.

Simple Minds' 30th anniversary show was about the songs, with a set list dominated by material from 1985's Once Upon A Time (their most successful album) back to when frontman Jim Kerr and his guitarist mate Charlie Burchill formed the band in Glasgow in 1979.

Some songs lagged (Once Upon A Time and Glittering Prize in particular), the chorus to The American sounded a little silly these days but incited a sing-a-long, and the flouncy Promised You A Miracle, arguably the band's most blatant 80s-style hit from 1982's New Gold Dream, sounded the most dated of them all.

Yet Someone Somewhere (In Summertime), a song from the same album, was a beautiful lurching highlight and the band were at their rousing best on anthems like Alive and Kicking, the searing and dramatic Waterfront, and, of course, Don't You (Forget About Me) (with NZ-based music producer Malcolm Foster, who used to be in Simple Minds and the Pretenders, taking over on bass).

Oddly enough the band sounded their most fresh and contemporary when they got a synth-driven glitch and groove on for Sons and Fascination (like Kraftwerk-meets-Donna Summer disco) and the primal pulse of Lovesong.

Kerr and Burchill - the only two original members - are such likeable blokes. You can tell, even after more than 30 years, they still love what they do, with Burchill pulling out his trademark harmonic licks and Kerr striking poses, hiding behind his hands, winking, waving, and looking humbled as he peered into the theatre at his adoring fans.

The fans were rabid - one in particular. In fact there was no song Simple Minds could play that the guy in the front row wearing the red Alfie 15 football shirt did not know all the words to.

And Kerr loved it, with the band playing an extended encore - "Do you want one more? I don't want to go home." - leaving no doubt that Simple Minds are well and truly alive and kicking.