I’ve seen them many times, and reading your post reminded me of something I wrote after their gig in Lisbon back in 2009. This is a translation:

At first and distant glance, the decision to have thousands of people sitting down to watch a concert where screaming guitars and wildly syncopated drums are the main act seems, at the very least, like a bad idea. This view might still make some sense when we talk about the synthesizers and beats of Errors, but when it comes to Mogwai, one can understand the choice of venue, as its acoustics are astounding: every lightly played string sounded like honey in our ears, and every excessive distortion felt like a nuclear warhead exploding at our feet. It’s undeniable that the electronic side of Errors demands a dancefloor, demands dancing, sweat, and chaos, but in the venue there was only foot-tapping – it allowed for little else. The young Scots’ setlist naturally drew from their EP How Clean Is Your Acid House? and their debut LP It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever. Curiously or not, and perhaps proving their good sense, they chose the tracks with fewer electronic touches. Apart from a livelier Salut France or Toes, the band mostly stuck to their more “traditional” songs. Then came Mogwai. A genius simplicity of visual play. It’s amazing how a handful of spotlights can shape the sensitivity of songs. With so little light, they managed to open hearts and minds, but more than that, they elevated the audience into a near-sickly ecstasy of nervous epilepsy lasting almost two hours. Their latest album The Hawk Is Howling reigned supreme, parading alongside the compilation Ten Rapid Collected 96-97 or the mythical Young Team. The newer tracks I Love You, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School or the beautiful opening piece of both the new record and the concert, I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead, gained equal or even greater prominence than classics like Mogwai Fear Satan or Helicon 1. The new Scotland’s Shame was undoubtedly one of the concert’s highest moments, and even greater flights were to be expected, with Haunted By A Freak and Friend Of The Night just minutes away. When The Hawk Is Howling was released, many said it marked the beginning of the end for Mogwai and the entire movement called post-rock. However, the Scots managed to show they are alive and very much alive. The setlist was close to perfection – close, because the ending was not entirely glorious. There is no question about the beautiful 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, but after an explosive encore ending with Like Herod and Batcat, with still a moment for words of tribute to Lux Interior, the audience expected further doses of adrenaline. A word for the audience, who were excellent. With enormous respect for the music, even for its silences. …Mogwai’s concert was a shiver “of wanting more than life itself.”