“I’m sorry, guys, we are a rock band,” Snow Patrol front man Gary Lightbody told audience members who dived for their ear plugs at the beginning of the band’s set. ‘”Chasing Cars’ isn’t our only song.”
The Irish quintet played a commanding 90-minute set to a sold-out crowd at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theatre Saturday night. Thriving off the popularity gained from “Grey’s Anatomy,” the band just started a nationwide tour that will run through the first week of April.
“Not very many British bands play here because it’s so big,” Lightbody told the crowd of almost 5,000 in the amphitheater. “But we like touring. In Ireland you play six places and you’re done.”
The band kicked off with “Spitting Games,” “Wow” and “Chocolate,” a trio of favorites from 2004’s “Final Straw.” That album sold more than two million copies worldwide and started to get the band popular in the United States.
“It’s Beginning To Get To Me” and “Headlights On Dark Roads” from the band’s most recent album “Eyes Open” came next, followed by oldies “How To Be Dead” and “Grazed Knees.”
“If you stand up and leave after this, I will hunt you down,” Lightbody told the crowd before playing the band’s biggest hit “Chasing Cars.” The song was featured in the second season finale of the popular ABC show “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The song hit No. 5 on the U.S. singles chart and was the most-downloaded song on iTunes’ charts. It even earned Snow Patrol a Grammy nomination for “Best Rock Song.”
The crowd squealed when the first few notes were played, and they sang so loud that it was hard to hear Lightbody at times.
The slightly more upbeat “Shut Your Eyes” followed, but then the band had a problem. It wanted to play duet “Set The Fire To The Third Bar” but was missing female guest vocalist Martha Wainwright. Lightbody decided to solve that problem by pulling up a member out of the audience to sing with him.
The girl he selected knew the words well and actually would have sounded pretty good if she wasn’t a walking bottle of vodka. She started doing some J. Lo-style dance moves and rubbed up on Lightbody, but after a few seconds of that he had enough. He jumped down into the crowd and finished the duet from the orchestra pit, as far from the girl as his mic cord would allow.
At times the show seemed like the Gary Lightbody show. The other members of the band stood dormant through most of the show and didn’t speak once. The crowd didn’t seem to mind though because Lightbody was hilarious. He was full of witty comments and observations.
“Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking,” “Make This Go On Forever” and “Ways And Means” came next. The band then closed out its set with “Run” and “You’re All I Have.”
The band’s light and fog show was a highlight of the night. With several panning lights set up both on and above the stage, a mere change of color in the lighting could change the whole mood of the song. And with a hint of fog thrown in, it created a cool visual effect where you could see the beam of the lights.
Even though the set was done, not a single person moved from their seats. They all cheered for an encore, and Snow Patrol is not one to disappoint.
Starting off with “The Finish Line,” which Lightbody and keyboardist Tom Simpson did a nice solo version of, the band finished with the power-pop anthems “Open Your Eyes” and “Hands Open” before thanking the crowd and disappearing into the night.
The 18-song set drew pretty evenly from both of the band’s popular records. Eight tracks came off of “Final Straw,” while 10 came from “Eyes Open.” Material from Snow Patrol’s earlier U.K. albums was absent, but I’m not sure if anyone in the crowd would have known it anyways.
The band’s show was reminiscent of fellow British rockers Coldplay. The lights and stage show were very similar, except I would argue Lightbody is more charismatic than Coldplay front man Chris Martin.
OK Go and Silversun Pickups opened the night. I missed Silversun Pickups due to some ticket issues, but the Los Angeles-based indie band has taken over KROQ by storm. I recommend you check them out.
OK Go put on an upbeat dance show with its disco-pop tracks. I was kind of hoping to see the dance routines from the music videos that made the band famous on YouTube, but the band didn’t perform them.
Overall, the night was a blast and everybody filing up the stairs of the amphitheater seemed to have really enjoyed themselves. Snow Patrol definitely makes a good, mellow show to take a date, or your mom, to.
