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Audience participation. That's what singer Gary
asked for, as he beckoned the crowd forward to the stage at King
Tut's. Crowd duly obliged, shuffflilng good-naturedly to fill
the gap that every musician must dread. But the Snow Patrol boys
have a fairly magnetic personality and have the crowd won over
pretty quickly. Some sections more than others mind you. They
open with a few songs I didn't recognise, they could be new tracks,
but maybe they've reworked things a bit. The next single, "Starfighter
Pilot", will be a remixed version of the old track, and
like the rest of the set features their 'pocket dynamo' (as someone
points out, they must have big pockets), Tom, on decks and scratching.
But it's those unsung 'members', the fans who make the night.
One young lady is particularly voiciferous in her praise for
the band and they unwisely invite her onstage, an offer which
she,mercifully declines. Gary then says he wanted to tell the
audience a story, but doesn't have time. "I WANT TO HEAR
A STORY!!!" comes back the cry. Hmm. "Security?"
reply the band. Anyway, they persevere, overcoming this and the
loss of guitar on "NYC", making for a rather funkier-than-anticipated
version of their finest moment to date. That\s the thing about
Snow Patrol, sometimes they completely hit it off, song-wise,
other times, in their patchy first album, they fail to hit the
heights they set themselves. Tonight though, the new material;
in particular the new stuff being 'premiered' here and with the
continuous use of decks and samples, they seem to have the ability
to go all the way. That should keep the fans happy - which would
be a sensible move... |
