Snow Patrol

The crowd was a sidewalk’s width and around the block for Saturday’s free Snow Patrol show at the House of Blues in San Diego, California.

The quintet of Scottish vocalist Gary Lightbody, bassist Paul Wilson, lead guitarist Nathan Connolly, keyboardist Tom Simpson, and drummer Johnny Quinn took to the stage, doused in blue light, at just after 9 o’clock to play a set that included many of their recent hits.

“Run,” an ethereal ballad addressed likely to a parting lover, tugged heartstrings, while “Take Back the City” powered on, pulling the band from their often melancholy leanings and shoving them headfirst into rock-dom.

“Shut Your Eyes,” another radio favorite, prompted sing-alongs, Lightbody directing first the “ladies” to join him and then the guys.

“Terrorize me with your gruff baritones,” he chided, with a winning smile.

Lightbody, whose angelic and energized stage presence doesn’t show through nearly as well on recordings, walked the House of Blues set with unbridled joy. Often singing with his hands clasped as though in prayer, his delivery was heartfelt and skillful, as was the bands’.

Everyone appeared completely humble throughout the show, especially Lightbody, as he laughed at himself at one interval for making what he dubbed “rock star mouth.”

“My mouth is a fucking rock star,” he chuckled, in mock hubris.

While the band members were largely quiet, Lightbody was quite a chatterbox, though not uncommonly so. His good humor, eaten up by the crowd, leaned towards the slightly and gleefully homoerotic that night.

“To know him is to want to kiss him,” he said of his accompanying acoustic guitarist, Troy, and when introducing Richard Colburn (of Belle and Sebastian fame), he uttered this strange sentence in his deep brogue: “I’d like to have all his atoms in my mouth.”

All in all, the show went off without a hitch, and the group, though mostly known for softer rock and Top 40 hits, blasted all pre-conceived notions away with a tightly harmonied and distinctly solid set. Their studio sound doesn’t nearly capture what these five (six? Seven? There were additional members onstage) are capable of. Fans, see them live if you can; non-fans, go see them too.