Live at the SSE Hydro Glasgow (2CD/DVD)

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Artist: Simple Minds
Label: Edsel Records
Released: 2014
Running time: approx. 90 min
Rating: 5/5

If there’s any band on the planet that can truly brag about a tireless live drive, it’s definitely the long-lived Scottish new wave veterans Simple Minds. Two years have flown by since the live document »5X5 Live«. It was followed by a giant twelve-hour  set of six concerts from the new Celebrate tour, titled »Celebrate – The Greatest Hits+ Tour 2013«. It kicked off, of course, where else but in Great Britain back in autumn 2013, and in spring 2014 Simple Minds swept through the rest of the European continent, returned to the British Isles, and finally wrapped it all up with a summer leg back on the continent. So the heavy touring and the work on a new studio album are in full swing. The band is going through a new renaissance bloom in the mature years of its career. That’s a fact! The guys are in great shape. Performance-wise and, evidently, creatively too (Big Music drops at the beginning of this November).

This document comes from the band’s show in their “home” city of Glasgow on 27.11.2013. The package comes with three discs. Two CDs and a DVD (the document is also available on Blu-ray, by the way)! Four tracks have been cut from all three, namely Once Upon A Time, Hunter and the Hunted, The Fear of Gods, Let it All Come Down, plus the instrumental Speed Your Love to Me. Why the band decided to shorten the recording isn’t clear. There’s more than enough room on the discs, after all. The package comes with a hefty booklet packed with a heap of excellent live photos and all the essential info, which will blast you straight into the band’s massive tour titled »Celebrate – Greatest Hits plus«,

There’s only one conclusion, and it stays the same as after taking in »5X5 Live«. As live performers, at least on audio-visual media, Simple Minds are practically flawless. They age like fine wine, and every detail is fused with filigree sensual softness into a perfect musical body, stuffed with the rapacious atmosphere of a unique world that only Simple Minds can create. They’ve always been famous as great sonic perfectionists who knew how to masterfully exploit one of the basic axioms of composing rock music, the principle of »less is more«. The live recording once again delivers outstanding sound, where the contrasts between all the building blocks are pushed to the max for an experience of exceptionally hypnotic atmosphere, the kind only the world of Simple Minds concerts knows. The echo of Burchill’s chords, wrapped in a poisonous »sustain«, is balanced with the typical sound of eighties new wave synthesizers, and at the front of it all stands the erotic, velvety charm and big charisma of Jim Kerr’s unique vocal approach. The extremely contrasting sound and the megalomaniac soundscape of hypnotic moods are filled out by tearing, rattling bass kinetics and the cannon-like crack of the snare drum. All in the glow of flawless execution.

Home turf is always something special. A packed hall carries the band on its hands, Kerr is chattier than ever, and the band radiates incredible ease, positive energy and full-blooded commitment, let’s rather call it devotion to their musical religion and sermon! And, last but not least? To the crowd. It’s hard to believe that the perfect sound you’ll enjoy on this document can actually be recreated on stage. But Simple Minds are complete masters at it. They remain masters. A string of the biggest hits, often beefed up with hypnotic disco allure, pulls the crowd into its magical world as they join the band’s concert theater with full-blooded singing, and Kerr can relax and soak up the chemistry between band and audience. Whether it’s Mandela Day, Promised You a Miracle, Someone Somewhere in Summertime, The American, or of course the unforgettable evergreens Don’t You (Forget About Me) and Alive and Kickin’. Given the makeup of the set list, the effect of the excellent black backing vocalist Sarah Brown also comes through more on this release (e.g. Love Song). This document also brings a brand-new song titled »Big Music« with a spiky guitar riff that heralds the new studio album and contains all the typical Simple Minds trademarks, while at the same time hinting that the band has devoted the music-making for the new album to a new epic of sonic experimentation. That’s very good, because it means the band’s evolution is by no means over yet.

Picture an »updated« version of the band’s classic 1987 live document from the peak of their popularity, »Live in the City of Lights«, upgraded for the new times. Simple Minds play their classics differently in the new times than they once did. The chemistry is different, the cohesive bonds of the quintet are stronger, outstanding, the members’ awareness of each other phenomenal, the execution of the material magical. The crowd is eating out of Kerr’s hand!  Simple Minds are wiser, more mature, more experienced in the new times. That’s why they play even better live, even though the band left the zenith of commercial success far behind long ago (in the first half of the nineties). If by some unfortunate miracle you don’t happen to know the band, but you strive for perfect sonic perfectionism and an eclectic musical craft, »Live at the SSE Hydro Glasgow« is just the release to start discovering the output of this utterly fascinating band!

Lineup

Jim Kerr – vocals
Charlie Burchill – guitar
Mel Gaynor – drums
Andy Gillespie – keyboards
Ged Grimes – bass guitar
Sarah Brown – backing vocals

Production

Simple Minds

Track list