- Music
- 08 Apr 04
Okay, it's not me or any of the other 1300 Ambassador ticket-holders who've been all over the charts like a rash recently, but that doesn't stop Snow Patrol's top 5 breakthrough feeling like a personal victory.
Okay, it's not me or any of the other 1300 Ambassador ticket-holders who've been all over the charts like a rash recently, but that doesn't stop Snow Patrol's top 5 breakthrough feeling like a personal victory.
Judging by that hallowed forum for pre-gig discussion – the gents – most the people here tonight fell in love with the band long before Cat Deely, Smash Hits and daytime radio did and are here to prove it. Not that the smattering of courting couples lured by 'Run' aren't welcome. There's always been an ambition about Snow Patrol's music which suggested that they'd one day escape the indie ghetto.
The first and really quite significant difference between tonight and those Whelan's days of yore is that the boys aren't falling-off-the-stage-drunk (it was all Waggs' fault, honest!). Focused on the task at hand – Gary notes that along with Belfast and Glasgow this is one of three homecomings – they conjure up a set which makes you realise just how lacking in breadth and guile most of the guitar band opposition is. Jet and The Vines may have the haircuts, but it's Snow Patrol, as demonstrated by the opening salvo of 'Wow', 'Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking' and 'Same', who possess the killer tunes. The energy level on stage is matched by the crowd who break into spontaneous rounds of applause whenever there's a dip in the onstage decibel level.
The heroes' welcome isn't confined to the new songs, with 'One Night Is Not Enough' and 'An Olive Grove Facing The Sea' both acknowledged as the masterpieces of unrequited love that they are.
A quick pogo through 'Chocolate' – I know it's a ringer for Doves' 'Pounding' but what the fuck? – and it's time for the song that's launched a thousand teary singalongs. And that's just in my flat! Gary Lightbody has barely got through the first verse of 'Run' when the house choir drowns him out. Visibly moved, he concedes defeat and lets the mob finish the job off. It's a magical moment which other bands will have to go some distance to match.
Nothing which follows is going to be able to scale those heights, though the encore versions of 'Post-Punk Progression', 'Starfighter Pilot' and 'Spitting Games' try damn hard. It's only March and Snow Patrol have 'Gig of the Year' sewn-up.