Snow Patrol: keeping eyes open and on them
Bright lights and a futurist LED screen made a dramatic intro for the five-piece's first Glasgow show on the Fallen Empires tour. A backdrop of rotating spheres and geometric shapes, morphed onto a globe for their entrance, perhaps a nod to the steady growth of the student band over the past 15 years to where they boldly stand now.
Far from the small stages they used to play, tonight's monstrous show started at its most venomous. Opening track from their latest album, I'll Never Let Go was much more expansive live than on record, with an 8-piece extended band creating the mantra. With different washes of light diffusing over the stage, and a vigorous electronic backing, Snow Patrol are at their most experimental to date, a welcome change for the generally safe band.
With Mr Lightbody stating, "It's so good to be back in Glasgow," the band charge into their more recognisable sound for a rollicking Take Back The City. This pleased a lot of their more mature fans who appeared slightly perplexed at their bass-heavy opener.
Known for their Irish charm, their 35-year-old frontman is on continuous banter mode with the crowd throughout. Taking a leap into the front row early on, he claims to have been violated by them as he zips up his jacket and realigns his signature floppy hair on his return to the stage. Dedicating the next track to those enthusiastic fans, mega-hit Run slows them to a hands in the air still. Dropping down to an atmospheric guitar and crowd backing only, the band have everyone on board and explode back in for a euphoric final chorus.
After even more love for Glasgow (Lightbody really had it in abundance), the band are joined by Miriam Kaufmann for the Celtic infused Set The Fire To The Third Bar. Taking the place of Martha Wainwright in the haunting track, Kaufmann and Lightbody's intertwined vocals stole the show, the boisterous crowd sedated as the melody washed over the SECC.
With six albums under their belt, the band really have extensive back catalogue to play from, and manage to cover fan favourites, as well as biggest hits, with the lullaby intro of You Could Be Happy initiating a cheer from all sides of the arena. Regardless of their experience and extensive touring, they never appear to tire on stage through the entire set, and tackle each track with fresh energy, often fresher than Friday night Glasgow. This energy excess is largely initiated by their frontman, who takes on the bounding Andrex puppy role.
Mixing feel good tracks and ballads, they have the crowd somewhere between bouncing and phones in the air, with Chasing Cars receiving the biggest cheer of the night. Even after the track's major success, Lightbody still looks genuinely delighted at the sheer magnitude of the audience response.
Menacing lights signature the return into their new album for an apocalyptic Fallen Empire. Easing the crowd into their more dance influenced sound, it isn't long before Snow Patrol reverse back into old material to end on a sing-a-long high.
Dipping their toe in the water of their new album, safe boys Snow Patrol put on a reliably great show at Glasgow's SECC tonight, ending with thousands of fans saying "Yes" to their empire which looks far from falling any time soon.
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