Snow Patrol, Edinburgh Castle review: 'a kind of homecoming'
This Edinburgh Castle gig was stuffed with hits, writes David Pollock
Snow Patrol, Edinburgh Castle ★★★★
“Scotland, thank you for sticking with us all these years!” said the enviably youthful Gary Lightbody early on during the last of this year’s gig-based Castle Concerts. “Here's a song to remind you just how many years that's been.”
The song in question was Run, which finally broke the Northern Irish band in a big way after several years of struggle through the indie scenes of Dundee and Glasgow. At 22 years old it’s even more elderly than the follow-up Eyes Open album, which this year celebrates two decades of life.
While Snow Patrol remain a dependably popular band, this history gives them a special affinity with Scotland. Eight songs into the set, Lightbody pointed out that three-quarters of the songs they had already performed were written here. Among them, we presume, were 2000s breakthrough period hits including the opening Take Back the City, Chocolate and Crack the Shutters. Each of these are brisk, guitar-driven anthems with perfectly lovelorn big pop choruses, which the band still play with the appropriate energy, Lightbody thumping his hand to his heart and punching the air. A capacity summer night’s crowd, including more than a few inter-generational families, knew all the words.
The sixth of these Caledonian songs was the twinkly, lesser-known ballad You Could Be Happy, and Lightbody joked afterwards it had presented a chance for the audience to go to the bar. He also laughed that the brand new song Love, I Guess offered a similar opportunity, but that meant missing its Scottish debut.
In truth, there were few moments to leave the arena without missing one of the band’s array of big hits, including the birthday album’s central diptych Open Your Eyes and Shut Your Eyes, its hugely successful Chasing Cars, and other affirmative anthems including You’re All I Have and Just Say Yes. Lightbody, his guitar bearing a big sticker with the word CELT on it, looked positively thrilled by this sort-of homecoming response.
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