Snow Patrol Take It To Manchester

I went to Manchester yesterday to see Snow Patrol play a gig as part of their Take It To The Cities Tour. I first came across Snow Patrol a few years ago via a friend of mine in Northern Ireland and then of course got the chance to see a short set from them when they supported U2 at a few gigs I saw. I really liked what I heard then and even though I wasn't that into their last album I really wanted to see them play a full concert in their own right.

I met up with my friend Julie in Manchester, and we met up with Debbi and her husband after the show. We decided to give the support bands Cashier Number Nine and The White Lies a miss in favour of going to our favourite Thai restaurant for a meal!

We had great seats at the Manchester Evening News Arena. The stage set up was quite simple but they had some nice lighting effects. Their live sound was great, Gary Lightbody's voice was amazing - and what a tall man he is, never noticed that when they supported U2, probably because I was much further away.

For "Run" Gary left the stage and re-appeared near the back of the arena amongst the crowd. He found a woman willing to hold his mic as he did an acoustic version of the song. Don't know what was going on but he was laughing a lot at first! Things settled and he finished the song very nicely, I was a surprised they did that song that way, but it was really nice. All the lighters and phones were on and as Gary said it looked like the stars had come out.

Of course "Chasing Cars" was a highlight and I must say I felt tears welling up, it is such a fantastic, emotional song, a classic. The band got a good reception from the crowd throughout.

For the encore they played The Lightning Strike a three song epic consisting of What If This Storm Ends? The Sunlight Through The Flags and Daybreak The Lightning Strike accompanied by a brilliant video. The video, which lasted about fifteen minutes was beautiful and really drew you in. It was very intricate and cleverly done and absolutely fascinating. I've never seen a band do anything like that before, but it really worked, I loved it. Below is part of that video taken by a fan at the recent Dublin show - though I must say it was much more effective live.

All in all, a great show!