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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Snow Patrol showed a full house at Oakland’s Fox Theater the power and energy of an old-fashioned concert supported by new beautiful modern imagery on Monday night. Formed more than 30 years ago by lead singer Gary Lightbody, the band performed seventeen songs that demonstrated their still very popular balance of haunting emotional explorations, singalong enthusiasm and power rock ‘n’ roll hooks.
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| Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Taking the stage to beautiful displays of “Oakland” and the band’s name on the screens at the back of the stage, the band immediately set the tone for the show with “Take Back The City” as Lightbody stalked the front of the stage before donning his guitar midway through the song, lead guitarist Nathan Connolly took a wailing solo and shared backing duties with guitarist/ keyboardist Johnny McDaid.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
2003’s “Chocolate” followed with its soaring chorus and steady up-tempo drumming before Lightbody led the audience in an inspired singing of “Whoa o Whoas” – the first of many audience participation moments throughout the night that had the band members wearing wide smiles as the Oakland crowd lustily joined along all evening long. The bouncy, dance0style “Called Out in the Dark” from 2011’s “Fallen Empires” followed before the band first dipped into their latest album with “All” – the opening song off 2024’s “The Forest Is the Path”.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The recording of the latest album could have served as a breaking point for the multi-decade band as they struggled mightily in the recording process. After five months of work, they had run into a creative wall, scrapped what they had and brought in producer Fraser T. Smith (Adele, Stormzy) who helped the band to crank out a record they could be proud of in five weeks. Oakland represented only their second US date on their world tour and first show in the Bay Area since 2022. Judging by the enthusiasm of the full house on a Monday night, their eagerly anticipated return was well-timed.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“It’s been 25 years since we wrote this song. That’s how old we are,” Lightbody said in introducing their monster-hit “Run” that again featured the audience loudly singing along. New single “The Beginning” saw proof of the joy of a monitor-less show as Lightbody made a mid-song admission “Yes, I did forget the words” as a beautiful swirling background accompanied the song.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“The Lighting Strike (What If the Storm Ends?) opened with a haunting piano intro from McDaid before Connolly launched a raging guitar solo as the background tree exploded into a tornado of leaves. As Lightbody joined on guitar, the song reached one of the biggest sonic explosions of the night. As Lightbody introduced “Talking About Hope”, he took note of the commitment of McDaid “Not only did he help produce this record. But he’s playing both piano and guitar with two broken hands and he didn’t miss a show of our European tour. So, this is from me and Nathan to Johnny.
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| Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
After visiting another singalong of their hit “Open Your Eyes,” Lightbody dropped struggled to remember the opening lyrics for “Make This Go on Forever” off 2006’s “Eyes Open.” Initially, he waved and announced, “We’re going to go around again until I remember it.” Then, as he struggled, he added. “Oh s@#t! I f@#ked it up again.” Finally, he got down in front of McDaid at the piano as though begging for both a clue to the lyrics and forgiveness for forgetting. His memory triggered, Lightbody led a version that receded to a whisper before roaring to a bombastic close as he dropped to his knees and received one of the loudest ovations of the night.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The second hour of the show began with “Shut Your Eyes” – delivered as a fun rocker with choruses and repeat, first with Lightbody and the strings and then an extremely loud crowd singing “Shut your eyes and sing to me.” After performing “Heal Me,” the band unleashed the massive hit “Chasing Cars” that began quietly before exploding to an end with the crowd singing the chorus acapella. “You’re All I Have” closed out the main set and while it may have lacked the widespread appeal of some of their catalog, it provided a nice jolt of energy to the crowd.
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| Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
As they took the stage again, Lightbody told the crowd, “The encore is f@#king stupid. Isn’t it? But we just came out and played a full set, some of you would be standing out there asking ‘Where’s the encore?’ So, here’s the f@#king encore. We’re going to do a quiet one and then a loud one and then we’ll leave.”
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| Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The “quiet one” saw McDaid, Lightbody and Connolly delivering the night’s most poignant, tender moment with a heartfelt and emotional “What If This is All the Love You Ever Get?” as Connolly muted his strings and Lightbody went into his falsetto for the quieter moments. For the “loud one” they finished with a big energy finish of 2023’s “Just Say Yes.”
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| Sorcha Richardson @ the Fox Theatre (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Opener Sorcha Richardson connected well with the early crowd with songs like “Shark Eyes”, “Adam” and “Smiling Like an Idiot” – a song she said was inspired by returning to her native Dublin after years of living in New York City. Richardson marveled at the beautiful theater that is not long off from celebrating its century-mark in 2028.
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