Photo Credit: Maryleen Guevara (18th September – New Century Hall, Manchester)
Can we claim Snow Patrol as being Scottish since they were founded in the city of Dundee in 1994? This question has long been debated within their fanbase but even though they did attend University in Dundee they can be considered Northern Irish-Scottish in our eyes. Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid are on a short tour promoting their eighth studio album The Forest Is The Path that was released on 13th September via Polydor Records. Due to demand the band played two shows in London (PRYZM) and Manchester (New Century Hall), it would be the same for Glasgow as the SWG3 Galvanizers Yard was used for the two short shows at 7pm and 9.15pm with 1000 or so lucky fans in attendance at each one.
There was a real buzz of excitement in the air as the three musicians took to the stage at 9.15pm for the show which kicked off with Chocolate from the 2004 Final Straw album, the crowd got right behind the band from the off joining in with the opening lyrics sung by Gary Lightbody “This could be the very minute I’m aware I’m alive/All these places feel like home”. Even though the decision was made to play without a drummer it felt more like an acoustic set tonight as we were treated to a second track from the aforementioned album, Run being the song, the crowd reaction was once again memorable. We would only get to hear two songs from The Forest Is The Path during the 35-minute set but nobody was complaining, they did play all the big hits, The Beginning was the first from the new release that sailed into the album charts at Number 1 the following day as expected proving that Snow Patrol still have a massive fanbase.
Called Out in the Dark from the 2011 record Fallen Empires was one of the best of the set quickly followed by All taken from the latest release and is a track that we think is a standout on The Forest Is The Path. The new songs are going to sound so good during the upcoming arena tour.
2006 release Eyes Open is the band’s most successful album selling 1.5 million copies in the UK and giving the fans who are here tonight a chance to hear Chasing Cars, by far their most streamed track with over 1.3 Billion streams on Spotify alone at the last check and voted time and time again as the best track of the 21st Century so far. Run is a song that tugs on the heart strings of so many people, when we saw them perform this very song at the Y Not? Festival in August they had 40,000 people singing back the lyric to them, it was a special moment. Open Your Eyes is the penultimate song of the short set from the same album and is another goose bumps moment as the fans joined in with the chorus showing love towards the band.
Just Say Yes is the perfect end to the set with the fans chanting ‘one more song’ to no avail, we will all just need to wait until the Snow Patrol arena tour in February 2025 that is going to be massive. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
