Snow Patrol

Orpheum Theatre- Vancouver, BC

Snow Patrol, led by lead singer Gary Lightbody, sold-out the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Vancouver Monday night to hear their big rock anthems and lovely ballads. Snow Patrol now has a catalog that enables them to pull hit after hit out and from “Final Straw” to “Fallen Empires”.

Lightbody demanded crowd interaction. From having everyone put their hands in the air and clap along, to jumping off stage to talk to the only gentleman sitting down (and testing out his chair to see why he could be so comfortable sitting), to having the audience sing from a whisper to a full-out sing-along (humorously stopping many times to re-start due to screaming fans), Lightbody had interesting ideas of how to keep the crowd involved and excited. It was refreshing to take part in.

With a video screen in the background and a bit of fancy lighting at times, the set was minimal and really kept the focus on the band and their music. The band knew exactly when to engage the audience, bring the instrumentation down, or bring on a rock anthem with a storming climax.

“Take Back The City”, “Crack The Shutters”, “This Isn’t Everything You Are”, “New York” and “Lifening” were among the evening’s highlights, though no song could compare to the response received for “Chasing Cars”.

Having probably performed fan favorites such as “Chasing Cars” thousands of times, one really couldn’t tell if the band seemed to mind playing it one more time- both Snow Patrol and the fans seemed to get immediately lost in the magic of the music. Snow Patrol really are at their best with their ballads, though the storming climaxes of their rock anthems are great too.

It’s not often that you see an opening act excite the crowd as much as the headliner these days. While screaming for Snow Patrol, a large amount of the female audience came out to see Ed Sheeran, a U.K. hip-hop-folkie, whose debut album, +, doesn’t get a North American release until June 12th. For someone you figure who would still be relatively unknown in these parts, had the foyer of the Orpheum overflowing with people as soon as his set finished, hoping Sheeran would come out for photos and autographs.

Sheeran’s talent was immediately apparent as he was armed only with an acoustic guitar and a machine that could play back his vocals on a loop (for harmonizing).

Every concert should be as joyous.

View additional photos HERE.

+Debbie Fettback
Photos: Debbie Fettback