Under the hot tin roof of Vicar Street, on the sunniest day we’ve seen in a long while, many bore witness to the new wave, 80s electro of Orchestral Maneuveres in the Dark a.k.a. OMD. All were wowed, all danced and it all seemed perfect. If only they’d turned on the fans above the crowd it could have achieved the lofty heights of gig perfection.

For those not familiar with OMD, you could plot them on the same axis as the Pet Shop Boys, more light-hearted than Simple Minds and just shy of New Order. While they were pop-superstars of the 80s, nowadays they’d kind of bring you to mind of that odd uncle you have who dances strangely at weddings. Lead singer Andy McClusky is the embodiment of that uncle onstage, complete with the odd throw-back dance moves and un-tucked white dress shirt.

But that’s only a symptom of the particular vintage and era that OMD belong to. Look past the retro appearance and you’ll hear a masterclass in electronic music. Throughout their career, they’ve been obsessed with architecture, morality and technology. As these things have morphed over the last two decades, so have OMD. Their sound is still there but it’s been expanded alongside the memory of their synthesizers.

All the big tunes were in attendance, Tesla Girls, Enola Gay, and Electricity would mention a few, and OMD are keenly aware of their back catalogue as they almost apologise for playing new material. But the difference in the crowd reaction was minimal as the band threw themselves into the greatest hits and choice cuts from ‘English Electric’ their most recent release, and first in a decade.

One the face of it, it may seem like McClusky, Humphreys and company are grasping at a fading star; an aged career that fell from on high ten years ago. Yet they’re still showing how the original propagators of electro did it. These guys were on Factory after all! You can’t knock their pedigree. Because all the time that’s gone in between sure hasn’t.