The 1975, Glasgow Ovo Hydro
Three-and-a-half stars
For a man who says he never wanted to follow the family line into acting, Matty Healy loves theatrics.
Tonight's show at a sold-out Hydro, for which the hardiest of 1975 fans have camped outside the front door for two days, begins with the stage obscured by a black curtain, embellished only with a spotlight showing the band's name.
When it drops to a cacophony of screams we find the singer lounging on the couch of a plush suburban home, smoking a cigarette and drinking a pint of Guinness.
Periodically stopping to cuddle members of the band he swigs from a hip flask, hangs out of the prop window and insouciantly smokes at the piano to the soundtrack of 14,000 devotees screaming along.
Whether it's an ingenious meta deconstruction of the rockstar aesthetic or just being a bit of a berk is probably in the eye of the beholder, but unlike say, The Libertines in the 2000s or Oasis - more on them later - there's never any sense this will be anything other than a slick arena show.
The 1975 run through a slew of songs from their most recent album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, with the bare minimum of crowd interaction - a "my, my, my" here, an "alright, alright" there - before the phalanx of prop televisions come to life.
Healy swigs from a hip flask we're treated to a series of images documenting the state of the world - XL bullies, bombs in Gaza, the coronation of King Charles, the disappearance of the Titan sub - and well, the state of Matty Healy.
Television pundits describe the frontman as an "edgelord" and "secret Nazi", while Oasis mastermind Noel Gallagher, with whom the singer has an ongoing war of words makes two appearances.
To recap briefly: Healy urged the estranged Gallagher brothers to "grow up", opining they could still today be the "coolest band in the world" were they not in the huff with each other. "What would he know about being in a cool band?", came the elder Gallagher's reply.
Read More: Derek McArthur: The downfall of Taylor Swift is not a matter of if, but when
To complain about such theatrics would be churlish - what is an arena rock show for if not being over the top - but it must be said the conceit is a bit hit and miss.
The high of a mass singalong to 'Robbers' is followed by two slower songs for which Healy mounts the roof of the prop house and there's appreciable checking of phones and refreshing of pints - don't forget some of those in the room have spent two days camping on a frozen patch of concrete by the Clyde for this.
A technically impressive set piece for 'I Like America & America Likes Me' is rather undermined by hitting the audience across the face with its message while in other places the point seems rather scattershot. It's not quite clear what David Cameron being made a lord has to do with XL bullies, or how a second appearance from Noel fits in - if it's information overload there's a disparity in ubiquity here. And why are all the camera guys wearing lab coats anyway?
Read More: The Boys in the Back: The Libertines drummer on Carl and Pete, drugs, and album four
The second half of the show, beginning after guitarist Polly Money takes over vocal duties for 'Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America' and titled Still... At Their Very Best is altogether more focused and rewarding.
The screen behind the set bursts into life for 'If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)' and what follows is a no-frills pop-rock show.
If some of Healy's stage banter, ironic or not, draws a cringe - he exhorts the crowd to "only throw underwear or cigarettes" - he's effusive in his love for the city citing smoking marijuana outside King Tut's as a formative memory.
The screaming returns to ear-shattering levels as The 1975 run through Be My Mistake, The Sound and a raucous Love It If We Made It.
There's no encore - that's one rockstar affectation Healy and friends eschew - and the night ends with a punky 'People' which even Mr Gallagher might find himself nodding along to.
The decision not to follow his mother and father into acting was a good one - the frontman and his band are a far better proposition as an arena rock band than as performance artists.
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 here