When someone says Acoustic Set to me the image that immediately springs to mind is a row of stools on a pretty bare stage with no real lightshow or any of the other extra elements that make up a full gig.

Sometimes those shows work and sometimes they don’t depending on the quality and depth of the bands material.

Well I was quite surprised tonight as Simple Minds do acoustic shows in exactly the same way they do full on plugged in and turned up to eleven shows.

The stage was full, the light show and sound were spot on and the material was excellent of course.

Jim Kerr is always a fascinating front man and it can be quite mesmerising just watching him move in the way he does, hardly ever standing still and covering every inch of the stage during the gig.

He wasted no time in getting around not only the stage but also sang the majority of the first song from the middle of the crowd, including a quick sit in someone’s lap.

New Gold Dream was quickly followed by See The Lights and then Glittering Prize, which is one of my favourite Simple Minds songs.

The set list delivered nearly all of the tunes you would expect including Don’t You Forget About Me, Waterfront and show closers Promised You A Miracle and Alive and Kicking.

No Belfast Child but a couple of great covers including a Bowie number to make up for it.

Simple Minds have been a constant over the last thirty years both in the quality of the recorded material and the energy of the live shows and tonight’s gig was no different.

It’s a shame I caught them near the end of this tour as I would definitely like to catch them in this acoustic arrangement again. Roll on the next tour!