The Gaslight Anthem @ Barrowlands, Glasgow, 24 July

There’s plenty of high-topped sneakers and sailor tattoos on show in Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom as New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem arrive in town to celebrate ten years of their breakthrough record The ’59 Sound.

Back on the road after taking some time off, the band have little in the way of a stage set, not even a banner bearing their name, but it’s not necessary because as soon as they hit the stage, the crowd go wild. “Even if you have 20 bad shows, you come here and you know it’s going to be good,” frontman Brian Fallon tells the audience.

First though it’s up to Matthew Ryan and Dave Hause to warm up the room with Ryan playing straight up rock'n'roll to a relatively empty house while Hause does his righteous folk punk thing, even busting out a ukulele for a track called Dirty Fucker that he dedicates to the US president. With his rolled-up sleeves and committed lifers rasp, he’s equal parts Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer, thanking the audience profusely and ending on a full-throated cover of Frightened Rabbit’s The Woodpile that draws appreciative applause.

Our main entertainment for the evening is also an advert for hard work, rocketing through more than 20 tracks from their five records including The ’59 Sound in its entirety.

This was the album which took The Gaslight Anthem from underground punks to Springsteen co-signed festival mainstagers and it’s clear that it has a special place in many in the audiences’ hearts. These shows sold out almost instantly and even after a decade its dozen songs channel a winning combination of blue-collar rock, nostalgic signifiers and wide-eyed sincerity. Fallon might sing about lost friends and heartbreak but he’s always looking to make new connections

After an opening trio of 2012’s Handwritten and a pair of tracks from 2010’s American Slang, the band lunge into Great Expectations, The 59 Sound’s opening track, and the crowd sing along to every word. These songs brim with youthful vibrancy so it’s no surprise that so many of the audience seem to relish winding back the clock, raising sweaty limbs in the air and hollering the “woah-oh-ohs.”

With Fallon moving on to a solo career and no new album since 2014’s divisive Get Hurt – a record which gets little love in the setlist tonight – there’s been speculation that the group might not be long for the world but tonight they seem on fine form, delivering beefy versions of their hits and shedding as much sweat as their audience.

Miles Davis & The Cool revs up like Marlon Brando on a motorbike while Meet Me by the River’s Edge manages to be both shamelessly indebted to Bruce Springsteen and winningly bowled over by the power of rock'n'roll to shape the world.

If this is to be a final victory lap, they’ll have ended on fine form. For the fans desperate for more, they’ll just have to cling tightly to Fallon’s words on the thunderous album closer The Backseat: 'If you never let me go, I will never let you down.'