Outside, in the sky above the Georgian heart of Dublin, a Halloween fireworks display brings a touch of pagan festivity into the heart of a city once in thrall to the Catholic Church. Inside the hallowed halls of the city's glorious Olympia, however, Glasgow's ghosts of rock'n'roll past are casting a spell of their own.
Teenage Fanclub have never been short of the stuff of magic - they started the 90s as the British band most likely to slay America, critically lauded first for their feedback-stained debut A Catholic Education and then for their Creation debut Bandwagonesque, a record that had some believing they would be bigger than Nirvana and a soft-loud, fuzzy-guitared template for everyone from Oasis to Radiohead.
Their Dublin gig, the first for three years, sees them with their sixth LP, the restrained tunefulness of Howdy, in stores. The last two years recording the album - during which their label Creation died a long and confused death - hasn't seen much change apart from drummer Paul Quin giving way to ex-BMX Bandits sticksman Francis McDonald. Singer/guitarist Norman Blake even has the shaggy pageboy cut that used to adorn photos in those Next Big Thing previews a decade ago.
Blake, guitarist Ray McGinley and bassist Gerard Love have not a jot of celebratory showmanship about them, just cheery hellos and thank yous, and two hours heavy on Howdy. Blake's Accidental Life is warm and yearning, McDonald joining from the drumkit on dizzying, delirious harmonies. The Beach Byrds comparisons are given more weight on Love's Ain't That Enough, a breezy, naively endearing belief in the best things in life being free. That's before they launch into the tidal wave guitars of God Knows it's True, a gem from the days when Fanclub were in step with the coruscating volume of Sonic Youth.
Fanclub's good-natured, businesslike approach to live shows hasn't changed: Blake introduces new tracks for the benefit of those who haven't got the album. The harmonies haven't been weathered. The chorus during the encores, Sparky's Dream and Starsign, indeed sound like a host of angels singing in the shower. Travis, who've had the genial, tuneful band from Glasgow territory to themselves for the last couple of years, had better start worrying again.
• Teenage Fanclub are at Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall (01902-552121) tonight, then tour.
