Remarkably, Chvrches hadn’t played their home town since 2014 (they’ve been too busy literally touring the world). Back home for one night only, they played at the massive Hydro arena, which goes to show the meteoric rise in their popularity in a few short years. Though Chvrches may be only a few years old, the three band members have been around the business a long time and singer Lauren Mayberry makes a point during the show of rhyming off the many bands they’ve been part of over the years with varying degrees of success.

Supported by Shura and The Twilight Sad (a past band of Martin from Chvrches) the crowd were well warmed up for the arrival of Chvrches.

Never Ending Circles opens the show with its massive riff. For a brief moment when Lauren starts to sing it sounds like her voice might get lost in the cavern of a place but from the second line in she is belting it out and it stays that way for the rest of the show. She barely put a foot wrong, other than clattering the stage with the mic during Science/Visions.

They promise new songs and old songs, meaning songs from their first album The Bones of What You Believe and songs from their second album Every Open Eye. We hear the majority of both albums, and both are as well received as each other. The crowd are up for it, but really come alive on Tether, a highlight from their first album and stand-out song of the night for me. The song was just made to be played in a massive arena like this and the guitar just makes it soar – although they are really an electronic band, I would love to hear them make more use of guitars in future.

Straight after Tether is an excellent extended version of Playing Dead with Lauren on drums, ending with her lying on the stage, from where she starts Science/Visions. Martin takes over on lead vocals a couple of songs later and I’m surprised how much he gets the crowd going, especially on Under the Tide, where we get a mass sing-along. He even gives a shout out the to guy in the crowd who is “taps aff” – the Glasgow phrase for being shirtless.

The main set ends with second album highlight Clearest Blue and the place is literally bouncing. For the encore we get the beautiful Afterglow and another mass sing-along on The Mother We Share.

An excellent show all round, from Chvrches and the support. There is also a refreshing lack of cameras on show, although the downside of this is a lack of quality video footage. I’ve found a couple of decent ones though, so enjoy:

Tether

The Mother We Share 

Set List

Never Ending Circles
We Sink
Keep You on My Side
Make Them Gold
Empty Threat
Tether
Playing Dead
Science/Visions
Gun
Bury It
High Enough To Carry You Over
Under the Tide
Recover
Leave a Trace
Clearest Blue

Encore:
Afterglow
The Mother We Share

Crowd photo from Chvrches Facebook page. All other photos my own.