Just over 24 hours before Idlewild stepped out at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, the much ballyhooed solar eclipse had proved a damp squib for much of Scotland, with cloudy weather obscuring any views. With inevitable irony, the following day brought clear skies and sunshine, meaning the audience for this outdoor Glasgow show were basking in brightness and warmth for the arrival of Roddy Woomble and company, a band now holding indie veteran status.
Sadly the good weather did not massively help support act Sorren Maclean, a well kent face in Scottish music. His low-key set, built around trad influences and mild rock, struggled to break clear of chatter from a mostly seated, sun-kissed crowd. He and his backing band had material that felt better suited to somewhere cramped and intimate, whereas here the sound quite literally drifted away into the sky.
Idlewild themselves were never likely to have issues like that. Even with a temporary personnel change - guitarist Allan Stewart is away, with Murray Macleod of noisy and longstanding Aberdonian trio the Xcerts filling in - this had the slickness and poise of a group who have been successfully doing this for a long time. The vibe of longevity was also brought home by the fact it was Woomble's 50th birthday, and a cake and rendition of happy birthday duly followed during the night's encore.
The five-piece are also marking their 30th anniversary this year (albeit with a few line-up changes in that time), and if the occasional onstage references to the age of certain songs made audience members feel like turning to dust, then the material itself came across as still being possessed of plenty of pep and fire.
This was evident by the spasmodic thrash of "(I Am) What I Am Not" from breakthrough record The Remote Part, and the jittery clatter of one of the group's earliest numbers, "Everyone Says You're So Fragile", when a love for American alternative music was the most visible DNA in their make-up. This also ran through another oldie, a fierce "A Film For The Future" . The heavier emphasis on melody that helped bring mainstream success was given the most prominence though, from snappy indie opener "You Held The World In Your Arms" to the beautiful stand-out of "American English", accompanied by a sweet sing-a-long as darkness atmospherically descended.
Woomble's voice has only changed mildly from the days when those songs came out, a touch more nasally than before. But it remains in fine shape, and if he is quite an unassuming centrepiece, singing while looking sideways at points, then guitarist Rod Jones and substitute member Macleod proved lively spirits, jumping, spinning and head thrashing around nonstop.
At times the Edinburgh band's more MOR moments popped up, from when they veered a little too far into the mainstream and lost a lot of their more interesting edges in the process, as on a chunky Love Steals Us From Loneliness in the encore that was all heft and no grace. It was a reminder going overboard with musical polish can be a hindrance, and brought back flashbacks of the late 2000s, when the band seemed to be plodding to a standstill.
However a handful of tracks from last year's self-titled album, their 10th release, proved much more satisfying. A punchy, power-pop flavoured clutch of songs, they not only fit in smoothly with older material but impressed by themselves, with guitar histrionics flowing through "End With Sunrise" and a catchy hook pulsing across 'It's Not The First Time".
There was enough in them, and in the vibrant way old indie favourites "Rosability" and "A Modern Way Of Letting Go" were delivered suggest Idlewild can celebrate a good few more anniversaries to come. That feeling was only strengthened with set-closer "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction", the contrast of distorted noise and Edwin Morgan's spoken work poem delivering a striking finale.
