Music review: Busted and Hanson, Hydro, Glasgow

This was a fun, efficient showcase of catchy teen angst anthems, writes Fiona Shepherd

Busted and Hanson, Hydro, Glasgow ****

Eight years since reforming and seven since experimenting with a new electronica direction, pop punk trio Busted have discovered that nothing fills arenas quite like an anniversary and the promise of all the old hits. The Busted 2.0 tour, marking (ostensibly) 20 years since their first flush, has exceeded sales expectations and the accompanying Greatest Hits compilation might even deliver their first chart-topping album.

Special guests Hanson – a key influence on Busted – warmed up the crowd with a breezy mix of bubblegum pop, country balladeering and soft rock. Like Busted, this fraternal trio from Oklahoma allowed aspiring rock and punk fans in the crowd to strap on their training wheels in preparation for heavier bands to come. Their short set was a tonic, if missing a key monster hit. MMMBop was saved for their later cameo with the headliners who took the stage, older and swearier, adopting their signature Charlie Simpson's Angels pose.

Busted

What followed was a fun, efficient showcase of their unstintingly catchy teen angst anthems. The audience practically coughed up their lungs yelling along to the punky thrash of Air Hostess, one half of their fancying-older-women diptych. The other, What I Go To School For, remains an irreverent turbo-charged hot-for-teacher rite of passage. In Busted world, their classmates weren’t interested in their dorky overtures (see/hear You Said No!) but the last laugh was theirs on Loser Kid and the gleeful Crashed the Wedding.

The band have come prepared with the obligatory new song, slotted unobtrusively into the middle of the set. Good One was a prophetically titled decent, bombastic ballad. Less good was their cover of The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks – despite being the best song of the night by some way, Busted don’t quite have the teeth to do it justice, and their fans were much more taken with their disposable pop vision of Year 3000.