Gig review: Simple Minds alive and kicking as they roll out the hits at 3Arena, Dublin 

Jim Kerr and his Simple Minds comrades were in fine form for their Dublin gig 

A recent picture of Jim Kerr in action with Simple Minds. (Photo by Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFP) 

Simple Minds, 3Arena, Dublin, ★★★★☆

It takes a lot of confidence to open with a song as monumental as ‘Waterfront’ and not worry about your gig peaking while you’re still warming up, but Simple Minds’ self-belief is well-placed. Having been repromoted back to the arenas which are their natural home as people realised how good they’ve always been, they appear to be enjoying themselves as much as any punter on Monday night.

Jim Kerr had the 3Arena in the palm of his hand from the off. Prowling the stage over Ged Grimes’ gargantuan basslines through a barrage of Nuremberg light, then leaning all the way back to the floor during the Herbie Hancock keyboard solo of ‘Hunter and The Hunted’. “Springsteen can’t do that, McCartney can’t do that… are there any painkillers in the house?” asked the spry 64-year-old.

There are two Simple Minds – the arty Euro Disco, Krautrock merchants, and the down-on-one-knee, release-the-doves, stadium rockers. This Scots Clan are canny enough to service fans of both incarnations, finding room for the obscure yet brilliant ‘This Fear Of Gods’, a gloriously overblown ‘Once Upon A Time’ which sports more “bah-bahs” than a nursery rhyme about black sheep, and the marvellous ‘Love Song’ which has a foot in either camp.

Simple Minds on stage at 3Arena, Dublin.

If quality dips slightly during the more recent ‘Hypnotized’ then cuts from their New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) masterpiece bring it bouncing back up. The Kraftwerkian highways of the title track give way to that rarest of beasts, the worthwhile drum solo, delivered with aplomb by Cherisse Osei, while ‘Glittering Prize’ and ‘Promised You A Miracle’ are driven by Grimes’ bass chords and the chiming showing-The-Edge-how-it’s-done, guitar of the perma-grinning Charlie Burchill.

Even ‘Belfast Child’, ridiculously over-the-top on record, sounds great despite visuals that might pass for a nostalgic butter ad. By the time they get to ‘Someone Somewhere in Summer Time’ (“That’s the stuff”) and ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ (“You’re putting me out of a job,” Kerr tells us as we roar along), it’s akin to shooting fish in a barrel with a bazooka.

Once the encore’s slightly ill-advised ‘Amazing Grace’/’See The Lights’ hybrid is negotiated, ‘Alive and Kicking’ is exactly that. If Kerr, a frontman with genuine charm, has lost a few notes off the top, he has co-vocalist Sarah Brown and thousands of losing-themselves admirers to take up the slack. ‘Sanctify Yourself’ is as good a place as any to finish out a superb gig full of heart, warmth and celebration. Mighty altogether. Hats all the way off.