大象传媒

30 mobile phones? Seriously guys come on. You're at the relatively titchy Empire Music Hall to witness the most successful Northern Irish act since Van the Man and you'd rather spend it recording into a fuzzy 2 inch square that sounds like a rodent farting in a swamp? Listen to the songs for feck's sake! And that's only the 30 at the front.

Sorry there.

Anyway. Our much-loved superstar chums Snow Patrol are back once again like the renegade masters, not headlining the Odyssey (that's for 09 folks see the news story - ED) or any other enormodome, but the ornate yet spacially challenged Empire. It's one quarter of a UK/Ireland promo tour and tickets are as rare as the fillings on hen's teeth. Hens have great dental hygeine.

Slightly later than billed, Gary kind of mopes onto stage almost apologetically, squinting into the lights and welcoming a crowd that's still oozing into the cramped venue. God knows how many interlopers and thrid cousins swelled the guestlist but its pretty packed and early on there is concern that many will watch the show from the foyer, or possibly the gents.

The band are obviously buzzed, all smiles and winks to the front rows and Lightbody is on sparkling form. It's a return to the days of sleggings from the stage in Morrison's or the Duke of York. It's usually difficult to show your craic when you're singing twenty feet away from the first civilians from the stage. Try as you might, a sports stadium is not an intimate place. There is a definite sense that the band are loving the close quarters banter and immediacy of a sardine-can gig.

The set list for this show seems to be pretty much new song then old song, not too precious with the new material and not too reverent with the past with dust-offs for the heavy hitters from the last two unit-shifters like 'Chasing Cars', 'Chocolate' and 'Open Your Eyes' while the crowd acclimatise to the fresh songs such as 'Please Just Take These Photos From My Hands' and 'Disaster Button'. There's a shake of the head when Starfighter Pilot is shouted in request. Not tonight.

On the whole, the new material is pretty instant. As a home listen 'A Hundred Millions Suns' seems at first listen oddly lacking in massive singles - Crack the Shutters aside - yet all the better for it. There are shoots of new and interesting directions such as on album highlight 'The Golden Floor' which has a hip-shaking sequencer on percussion with an almost dancehall bounce. Live, it's dedicated to Gary's neice Honey, (though not about her Lightbody states, as that would be totally weird).

Dedications also come thick and fast to the music scene here. Cashier no.9, ASIWYFA, Kowalski and more get their namecheck from the stage. Take Back the City is later played as a call to arms for the NI rock family.
Despite the stage being around twice its normal size Johnny is squished to the back, Nathan is Lightbody's main foil, stepping up to share the spotlight from time to time, whereas Paul seems hang back at times, not confident enough to feel part of the A team, still. They seem well practiced and, dare it be said, Gary's voice seems more on the money than before. There has always been a distinctive quality to his vocals, but now it seems married to a discipline that wasn't fully quite there when they made their jump toward the stratosphere.

Despite the odd on-stage glitch, with Gary grimacing through some monitor feedback, and eventually abandoning his acoustic altogether, all in all this is a performance from a band with a bit between their teeth. They know this is their finest work in some years and are determined to enjoy it with us. This is a return in many different ways.

Paul McClean