Chvrches, Barrowland, Glasgow ****

As if Chvrches needed any more practise in communicating with large crowds, they arrived in their home city’s most beloved venue fresh from a run of stadium gigs supporting Coldplay – and there was a brief, cheeky reference to the opening piano riff from Clocks to prove it.

The band were still seemingly utterly energised and eager to play to their own crowd before heading out for round two of the European stadiums. Ten years of touring have shaped them into a lean live machine, with a show they can take anywhere.

Their Seventies horror film intro music led straight into a horror show of a different kind as frontwoman Lauren Mayberry turned the misogyny of the entertainment industry into the synthquake of He Said She Said. Her bandmates Iain Cook and Martin Doherty swapped from keyboards to guitars for the math rock stylings of Forever and then back for the chunky synth pop of Bury It and proggy arpeggios of Science/Visions.

Whether delivering guitar rock or electro pop, they were accompanied by thundering drums from Barrowland debutante Jonny Scott, who is well used to hitting the back wall of the world’s arenas and has given the band an extra, authoritative heft.

Mayberry air drummed along with their fourth member, while Cook and Docherty rocked round the drumkit during the epic exaltation of Violent Delights.

Mayberry was the focus for the crowd however, twirling like a pop dervish, covering the stage in a flash, conducting the audience chant on Miracle, and returning for the encore covered in fake blood, having already delivered Final Girl, their beefy interrogation of the last-girl-standing horror film trope, to lead synth odyssey Asking For A Friend, breakthrough tune The Mother We Share and the ravey mosh of Clearest Blue to finish.

Music review: Chvrches, Barrowland, Glasgow