Leigh Ann Hines Photography

Gary Lightbody & Snow Patrol Reworked Tour rumbles through Killarney

A rainy wet and cold night after a long rainy and wet day. Everything is damp and soggy and Im ready to be in  nice warm dry venue. Second venue on the Ireland leg of the Snow Patrol Reworked Tour is the INEC in Killarney. As a venue it’s nondescript and generic. There’s no charm or beauty but it gets the job done. There was some confusion with fans about the seating, as some who had bought first and second row center ended up being on the side with almost no videw of the stage. I felt a bit sorry for those fans who obviously were expecting incredible seats but were stuffed in locations where they couldn’t see the stage clearly. The rest of the audience was outstanding. Loud, excited, and enjoying the show. I always love it when the audience provides such energy.

Gary Lightbody

I guess I should say a bit about the Reworked tour. This is not the typical Snow Patrol tour. Snow Patrol Reworked is a celebration of the band’s 15 year career, specially reworked and reinvented. Being a multi-million selling sucess story, selling out massive arenas and headlining the top festivals, this tour gives fans a chance to look back on the early days as well as being able to hear their songs interpreted in a whole new way. Each show is filled with 16 or so musicians on stage plus special guests that join for a song or two for one particular show. So, we see (and hear) a harp, violins, cello, french horn, trumpet, piano, and lots of various percussion instruments. In addition to the regular Snow Patrol lineup, we see Johnny McDaid (Vega4) on guitar, Ian Archer on guitar & slide guitar, Miriam Kaufmann on piano and backup vocals, Colm MacAthlaoich on trumpet, Richard Colburn (Belle & Sebastian) on percussion and drums. In addition, in many of the shows we are treated to special guest appearances, with tonights show featuring Maria Doyle Kennedy

SETLIST

• Finish Line: The show kicks off with a dramitic start , a single light on a solo harpist paying Finish Line. She is shortly joined by Gary Lightbody, then eventually more strings. Perfection.
• Crack the Shutters, arranged as a duet featuring Miriam Kaufman with piano. A lovely arrangement and Miriam Kaufman’s voice brings such emotion and depth to the song.
• Batton Down The Hatch. Lovely. One of the older songs from their first album, Songs For Polar Bears (Jepster, 1998)
• You Could Be Hapy
• An Olive Grove Facing The Sea, accompanied by Colm on trumpet. This is one of my faovorite songs so it’s wonderful to hear it played live.
• The Golden Foor
• Grazed Knees
• Cartwheels
• Take Back The City.

~INTERMISSION~

• Dark Roman Wine: one of the new songs on the Up Til Now compilation CD. This is stunning live, with heavy organs and Gary Lightbody’s vocal, almost feels as though we’re in a church.
• Spitting games
• You Are My Joy, reworked with the addition of slide guitar, which gives it a bit of a country tinge.
• Run, arranged with only strings, french horn, trumpet, and Lightbody’s vocals.
• Set The Fire To The Third bar, featuring special guest Maria Doyle Kennedy.
• One Day LIke This, a stunning cover of Elbows tune and it stands up to the original. Again, slide guitar added. Amazing. Epic.
• Lifeboats
• The Planets bend Betwen Us. This has been my favorite reworking. It starts with Johnny McDaid (Vega4) jamming on guitar and builds from there. It’s now much more  upbeat than the original. It’s fantastic and to my ears, an improvement on an already stellar tune. Bravo. I’d like to see this released in a live CD.
• You Are All I Have
• Chasing Cars, reworked with more bass and beat, building to a climax. A great improvement on a song that I’ve never loved.
• If There’s  Rocket Tie Me To It

~ENCORE~

• Just Say Yes: fun and wonderful all at once. It makes you want to move your body and clap your hands.
• Chocolate
• Shut Your Eyes

One of the highlights of the night was when they played Run. the new arrangement is wonderful, but tonight Lightbody didn’t get a chance to sing but a couple lines. the audience sing along was so loud the Lightbody stepped away from the mic and let everyone sing it for him. It was incredible. As he said, it was the absolute best and loudest any audience has done on the tour. While he always lets the crowd sing part, this time the crowd was so loud singing that he let them sing the whole song, not that he had much choice, as he wouldn’t have been heard over the voices of 1000+ voices singing their hearts out.

Other interesting observations: Watching the audience it was obvious that there were many folks who obviously only knew the current hits, or maybe only Chasing Cars and Run. They tend to look rather bored through most of the show, especially the first set. It was also interesting to watch fans try to identify songs. Since most songs has new arrangements, and some were very diferent than the version from the albums, they weren’t always instantly recognizable. It was fun watching fans trying to figure them out until a signiture line or melody became apparent.

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