Awesome show, despite venue (and opener)
Posted on 06. Apr, 2007 by The Gimcracker in Music
I don’t go to concerts near as much as a certain friend of mine or a certain sister in law of mine. That being said, Snow Patrol is great live. I caught the show at the Aragon in Chicago with openers Silverun Pickups and Ok Go! If you get a chance to see SP live I would say definitely take advantage of it as they really perform their songs well. I’m not a big fan of the song Chasing Cars but I loved seeing them perform it.
Set the Fire to the Third Bar requires a female voice, as you may know, but there happens to not be a female in the band. Solution? Pick a random girl from the audience to come sing lead vocals of a powerful song in front of 4000+ people for an internationally lauded band. I can’t believe she nailed it – every note. That’s pretty risky considering this particular song is very long and loaded with rich lyrics. You get some drunk high school girl up there who thinks she’s a Snow Patrol fan because she watches Grey’s Anatomy and suddenly your mistake is realized by everyone in the room. Guess we all got lucky.
The Aragon is not a good venue to watch a concert, or any activity that puts thousands of people in a room with one small exit. It’s not a good venue for people that sweat a lot. It’s not a good venue for smokers or anyone who may need to go outside for any reason during the show, since you aren’t allowed back in. It’s not a good venue for non-smokers because people smoke in the bathrooms due to the no-leaving policy. It’s not a good venue for late nighters as it has a curfew of 10:30pm. But it’s got really cool architecture!
Unless you’re an easily chilled, early to bed kind of person who is neither a smoker nor a non-smoker and more interested in waiting in the middle of a huge crowd staring at nice architecture at the end of a show than watching a band during a show, don’t bother going. Oh, parking’s $20 and 12 ounce crappy beers are $6. I guess it is Chi-town.
Ok Go! is fun to watch but painful to listen to, so they didn’t help my overall experience. YOU might like them. I can see how their videos and energy are appealing. Silverun Pickups were actually very good and I am planning on checking them out when I get a chance.
Despite the venue and the opener it was still worth it to see Snow Patrol live. I loved Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking and Make This Go On Forever, among others. The best show I’ve seen live is Coldplay, but let’s just say that if Snow Patrol opened for them they might feel a tad bit more nervous than usual.
[...] show was shorter but the venue was much better than when we saw them in Chicago at The Aragon. They still interacted with the crowd just like in Chicago and they still played their songs with [...]