Arriving just in time to catch the support act ahead of  headliners at the Barrowlands Ballroom, Port Isla set the bar high for Kodaline as their world tour kicks off here in Glasgow. With their well crafted harmonies and folk melodies as well as their catchy riffs and walking basslines, the lads from Norwich don’t miss a trick to get the early arriving, sold-out gathering on side.

Having already smashed BBC Introducing and made fans at Glastonbury last year, it's great to see them perform their knock out tracks like ‘Steamroller’ and ‘In The Long Run’ before delivering their performance of the night with ‘Better Love’.

One big applause only becomes another bigger one until the reason everyone turned out finally took to the stage. With Port Isla having lifted everyone’s spirits early, Kodaline were only left with the task of shouting “Glasgow” before breaking out with synth-driven ‘Ready’ from their new album Coming Up For Air.

With Garrigan instrument free for the opener, it’s not long before the mandolin and harmonica are the first instruments to be pulled from his arsenal as they followed on with yester-years hit single ‘Love Like This’. New album highlight ‘Unclear’ does enough to confirm that the new tracks are translating very well to the live setting. The song is underpinned by Vinny May’s recreation of the bodhran sound on drums and with the crowd stepping up in the absence of the choir, the darkened ballroom was soon alight with Garrigan’s minions and their phone torch lights.

Both new and debut album tracks got their lion’s share of the set list with crowd pleaser ‘High Hopes’ raising the roof in the middle of the set once more.  Halfway through and already fast becoming a treat to see Kodaline in this comparatively intimate space, there were still a few new songs to come. Carefully slotting them between more debut album favourites, it became quite instructive how the band have developed since then with four of the final five tracks before the encore being taken from Coming Up For Air.

Piano track ‘Love Will Set You Free’ closed the first act of the performance before they re-emerged for their encore to play the notable exclusion ‘Honest’ before turning the lights off after sing-a-long ‘All I Want’. By the end of the night, the crowd had been whipped up into frenzy whether wallowing in melancholia or outdancing and outsinging the Irish quartet.

Despite the ballads, the show could never take a kicking for their absence of big tunes, with Steve Garrigan seemingly being able to play the crowd as well as any of his instruments, Kodaline managed to make everything fit tonight. At moments it was sparse & atmospheric, then chanting and bouncing. Maybe Kodaline had found what they were looking for when starting the tour in Glasgow as drummer Vinny May said “Barrowland in March last year, was such a mental night and a great venue”.

Photo Credit: Lee Hammond

Atmosphere can make or break a gig. There are shows when it's palpable; anticipation and emotion entwining in to something almost tangible. Then there are shows like tonight, shows in which a disparate crowd form a mass of uncertainty, irrespective of universally high expectations. There are those here for whom going to gigs is a regular occurrence, there are those for whom the small-by-comparison Academy is a far cry from their past experiences of commercial arena shows and then there are those for whom this is quite clearly their first taste of live music. All are here in equal numbers and through no fault of their own make for an uneasy and somewhat timid audience.

Of course, all this is viewed from the Academy's balcony, and so any atmosphere there was may have been lost on its journey upwards. Having never managed to land tickets that have allowed us the pleasure of being up here however, it made little sense to turn them down, and what we may have lost in atmospherics was certainly made up for in both sight and sound. Each gorgeous synth loop and saccharine vocal hook is delivered and executed perfectly, the only sound issues appear when Chvrches heavier elements ('Science/Visions' for example) see the bass crackle above all else, though this rarely detracts from a band who are, quite clearly, in razor sharp form.

There's very little on-stage patter from Lauren Mayberry and co, and as such the band plough from track to track with a steadfast determination and incredible precision. Only when we're informed that the “tambourine section”of the show has come to an end do you get the first taste of Mayberry's dry wit. “You're humouring me” she adds with a wry smile.

The first of two new tracks this evening is the recently revealed 'Get Away'. A welcome inclusion, the track gets a solid reception despite its relative recentness, and marks an improvement in the atmosphere, especially when followed up two songs later with 'Recover' the most well received track thus far.

A review of any Chvrches gig wouldn't be complete without a mention of the fit-inducing light show that accompanies their performances. Lasers and smoke machines make a hallucinatory experience for the digital age; this isn't a kaleidoscopic mushroom fancy however, more a sensory staccato assault with the figure of Mayberry ever silhouetted against the neon pinks and blues.

Closing out the main set with the inevitable 'The Mother We Share' sees the atmosphere once again ramp up, though it's still not befitting of the band's effort, nor execution. Last time we saw Chvrches it was impossible to escape this song, but not having it rammed down our throats almost hourly by national radio has allowed it to once again grow on us, and there's definitely a reason why it's the band's biggest single. An expected three track encore sees yet another new song in the form of 'Dead Air' sandwiched between album closer 'You Caught the Light' and fan-favourite 'By the Throat' which ends the proceedings in a suitably emphatic manner.

Minor bass quibbles aside, you couldn't ask for a more perfect set from a band who really have little more than a solitary album in their repertoire. Note perfect, genuinely funny on the occasions they talk, and with an ability to write huge sounding pop songs with blistering choruses and sugary synths that, one would have thought, would make it impossible not to dance. Unfortunately however tonight is marred by a lack of atmosphere, something absolutely out of Chvrches' hands. We can only hope that, come March and the new album, the inevitable supporting tour will see a much more engaged Manchester crowd that lives up to the exemplary sets the band perform.