Primal Scream are one of those bands that you just have to see live. They should be on everyone’s bucket list.

Date: December 11, 2016

Venue: Rock City

You could never accuse Primal Scream of standing still and allowing time to decay their sound. Largely because they don’t have a ‘sound’. They’re an ever-evolving band who have stood the test of time by never making the same album twice. Bobby Gillespie can switch from Mick Jagger to club DJ via industrial, demonised rock in a heartbeat, which makes a Primal Scream gig so captivating. You want variation in a rock gig, you got it.

Gillespie struts across the stage to set-opener Movin’ On Up, their groove-laden silly soul classic.

It instantly clashes with Where The Light Gets In from their latest album Chaosmosis. It’s an anthemic electronic disco-stomp.

This in turn is a million miles away from Accelerator, a disorientating volley of discord and fuzzball clatter from their darkest album, XTRMNTR.

By now it’s easy to understand what’s happening. Gillespie is showcasing the band’s oeuvre with every song. (Feeling Like A) Demon Again starts like Erasure for Heaven’s sake, before going all smooth and cool on us like how Beloved used to.

They cherry pick from their impressive back catalogue, ignoring some strong singles but ensuring everyone is catered for in some way.

(I’m Gonna) Cry Myself Blind is a piano/organ bluesy waltz straight from the porches of the Deep South (via Glasgow). It punctuates the set remarkably, and sets up a trippy vibe as the first track from their seminal debut record is ushered in, Higher Than The Sun. Loaded will continue this blissed out vibe later just before the encore, but again we’re left to re-tune our minds on two Chaosmosis bangers (Trippin’ on Your Love and 100% Or Nothing), the mindmelt that is Kill All Hippies and Gillespie’s Jaggerrisms on the raucous soul-glam pomp of Rocks.

Since 1985, Primal Scream have offered us numerous incarnations and reinventions of themselves. Long may it last.