John Foxx & The Maths @ The Arches, Glasgow 23rd October 2011

another new track, Evergreen which I loved, more upbeat and very danceable. No One Driving was next, a popular song which sounded fresh and exciting. The Running Man and The Shadow of His Former Self were next – I had to avert my eyes in The Running Man as there was too much strobe lighting, so I took in the atmosphere and architecture of The Arches. It is a perfect venue for John’s style of music, cave like vaults in brick and bare stone with exposed pipework and conduits, and the rumble every few minutes as a train passes overhead. The reverberation around the rooms added to the sound coming from the stage.

Foxx then launched into Hiroshima Mon Amour – and this produced the biggest cheer of the night, followed by A New Kind Of Man – and by now the girls flanking him on stage were moving along to the music and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Plaza continued the boppiness. Next up was Watching A Building On Fire from the new album. This was less regimented, a more emotional song which also went down well. Then for me the highlight of the evening, Dislocation, hard to believe this was originally released in 1978. It took me straight back to my teenage bedroom, lying in a darkened room with headphones on and all the adolescent angst that came with it. “Just a swimmer growing dimmer in the glimmer of a summer, waving gladly, swimming madly, never never going under” Brilliant! Today’s version seemed less sad than the album version, seemed to have more space in it and had an amazing response from the crowd. And me!

The tempo then dropped for Interplay, a slower, hypnotic, bare song, and then Catwalk livened up the pace. This was a great funky track from the current album, to me this was the 2011 version of the perfect 80’s dance track and I loved it. John then held the audience in his hand for Just For A Moment. This was good, although to my ears it missed the big Billy Currie violin solo, and at one point John came in a little flat, but this was a momentary lapse in an excellent song. And the last song in the main set was Burning Car which brought back some good memories!

Then with “Thank you, Goodnight” the now silver Foxx left the stage.

The reception was tremendous, and before too long the band re-appeared for an encore beginning with The Good Shadow, a pleasant intricate tune before launching into Underpass – an excellent way to end a fabulous show which sounded dated yet fresh, familiar but new, cold but emotional, all in one. As the last notes faded away, Foxx stood and nodded and smiled, introduced us to The Maths, and then left the stage. A man of few words but lots of good music.

Review by Cat