Lisa-Marie Ferla's verdict: Four stars
It's been years since the Barrowlands played host to The Pogues on the Glasgow stop of their traditional festive tour, but it seems as though the older venue's mythology hung over the Academy this year.
Decades of hard living mean that Shane MacGowan is even less renowned for his vocal talents than he ever was, even without the venue's muddy acoustics to contend with.
These days his voice rarely matters to a crowd that will happily bellow along with every word of the band's raucous folk-punk party anthems for the guys in the pit with their light-up Santa hats, but when even Spider Stacy's vocals sound like all he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth you know you have a problem.
To mix things up this year, the band have been performing their classic 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & the Lash in its entirety.
But what the set list lacks in surprise it makes up for in the inclusion of classics like A Pair of Brown Eyes and Dirty Old Town; in the cheeky tin whistle and stamping of feet throughout Sally MacLennane; in the way James Fearnley leaps into the air with his accordion on The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn; and, yes, in MacGowan's cracked voice as he remembers The Old Main Drag when he was "only sixteen".
Coming mere weeks after the death of one of their own, the band's performance is even more poignant.
If Phil Chevron's own Thousands Are Sailing is meant as a tribute, the announcement was lost in the mumble, but music has always spoken more loudly for The Pogues and the football fan-style chants of the guitarist's name from the crowd showed how much he was missed.
Camille O'Sullivan gamely filled in for another ghost, bringing the house - and some falling fake snow - down on a seasonal Fairytale of New York.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article