Monday, October 19, 2009

Snow Patrol, SDSU Open Air Theatre, 10.17.09

To say Saturday was a very interesting day/night is an understatement. I didn't plan on staying up all night Friday, but by the time I got home from the Casbah and was settling in to some late night TV, I saw people tweeting about English Premier League Soccer on tv and decided to catch the fun while my videos from Friday were uploading. At that point I should've gone to sleep, but instead Devin came over and we kept watching soccer, listening to music, and catching up. Around 1 pm, when he realized my eyes wouldn't stay open, he sent me to my room and left. I was out for the next 6 hours. When I awoke, I discovered that I'd missed my ride and a pre-show dinner offer with Jeff, and that there was concern about my whereabouts. Anyway, I quickly got ready, called Taxi Rob, and arrived to Open Air Theatre with 10 minutes to spare before Snow Patrol started.

I kinda feel like Snow Patrol is one of those bands you have to apologize for liking. Somehow being on Gray's Anatomy does that to a band, they get relegated to the guilty pleasure corner and nobody wants to admit to liking them. But then I see them, know every song, have emotional epiphanies, and realize I've seen them every time they've played in San Diego and just have to come out of the proverbial closet. I love this band.



This is a fairly long post. Click 'keep on reading' for videos, setlist, and how I almost got in a fight.


Jeff bought great seats to the show, about 4 rows back from the orchestra area so that we were perfect eye level with the stage. OAT was about 2/3 capacity and the crowd was really mellow. Except for the assholes in front of and to the side of us. This was where the night got weird. I'm just trying to enjoy the show like everyone else, but when I get annoyed with something, I tend to fixate...like if I hear the bass of a car getting gas across the street from my house, it becomes THE ONLY THING I can hear. If I see someone being completely absurd, I will just stare as they become the only thing I see. So I'm watching the show, taking some photos and video for the bloggy blog, and notice the woman next to me making the craziest noises ever throughout every song. On video it sounds like she had a pekingnese dog in her purse, or a bird, but in person, it sounded like she was having an orgasm or had some sort of Tourette's. To accompany the "Oh...oh...oh....", she was thrusting her hips. Air-fucking, if you will. Whatever it was, it was driving me crazy. Add that to the two guys who within 5 minutes of the show, lit up a joint, and the cosmos aligned for them, giving them about 4 seats of space on either side, so they could flail their arms as if conducting a symphony. For the whole show. Not only that, but these assholes threw an inhaler onto the stage, which very easily could've hit Gary, or just pissed him off so much he could've called it quits on the show right then and there. Fortunately he joked that the idiot wouldn't get very far without his inhaler should Gary want to chase him down and kick his ass. I wish he had.





So anyway, at some point I just looked at the lady in totally disbelief, I believe my jaw was dropped to the floor. She got in my face and asked if I had a problem, which is when I realized the chardonnay she was drinking was probably her 6th. In a nutshell I replied that I did have a problem, that I was trying to enjoy the show, and that her orgasm was preventing me from doing so. Add about 20 expletives, asking her is she's retarded (so un-PC, I know), and telling her to STFU and you kinda catch the drift, to which she replied that she didn't care what I thought and very lightly pushed me on my sternum. Being that she was middle aged and had those crazy drunk googly eyes, I refrained from getting physical, but there was a definite "fucking touch me again and I will beat your fucking ass" threat somewhere in there. Don't make me get all Chula Vista on a bitch. Anyway, I was really trying hard to move past it, and she actually stopped at a point, but then I suppose just to antagonize me, did it even more than before. At that point I told Jeff what was going on, the people around me were getting angry at her, so there were some final words and we attempted to move away. Drunk bitch kept moving toward us so there was no escaping but I did my best to move on. So yes, I almost got in a brawl at Snow Patrol. Now we can move on to the show.

Setlist:
Signal Fire
Final Straw
Hands Open
Chocolate
The Golden Floor
The Finish Line
Make This Go On Forever
Run
Shut Your Eyes
Chasing Cars
Crack The Shutters
Just Say Yes
Take Back The City
Open Your Eyes

Encore:
The Lightning Strike (3 parts)
You're All I Have

There are a lot of reasons I love Snow Patrol. I kind of have attached meaning and sentimentality to just about every single song, whether it's a memory of a friend, a movie, an ex-boyfriend, or the crush that cannot evolve into anything more, the music speaks to me, and I know it is probably the same for a lot of people. The band plays with such precision that every song sounds perfect, especially on a chilly foggy night in the open air. Gary is such a great frontman, leading the band but never a showoff, telling stories and still being completely humble, like someone you wanna just have a beer with. A couple girls screamed "I love you" to which he replied "Thank you, I love you, too, but you wouldn't love me if you got to know me." Somehow I don't believe him. He talked about the soccer games that I'd stayed up all night watching, too, which was pretty hilarious and while I didn't get the whole story on video, you can see him explain why he carried a red balloon with 1-0 written on it across the stage and handing it off to his guitar techhere.

I was still trying to get over the people around me intent on ruining the concert for me, but Snow Patrol rose above and performed a phenomenal set.





For the encore, a scrolling text explained that the band, collaborating in Dublin on a stormy night, created three songs that became their own story, to which they called the end result "The Lightning Strike". This is part one of that story.



The show was amazing. The near fight and douchebags in front of us, not so much, but I'm glad I didn't miss this show and can be pretty sure that anytime the band return to San Diego, I will be there.

The band is releasing a 'best of' compilation, too. Here are the details of that:

Multi-platinum recording artists, Snow Patrol, will release the compilation album, Up To Now, on November 10th, 2009 via Fiction/A&M. This 30-track double album is a must-have for Snow Patrol fans everywhere as it features all their hit singles, cover versions, rarities and album tracks that span the part-Irish, part-Scottish quintet’s amazing 15-year career.

Up To Now includes three previously unreleased songs, “Just Say Yes” “Dark Roman Wine” and “Give Me Strength”, as well songs from the two albums Snow Patrol released on UK indie label Jeepster Records: 1998’s Songs For Polarbears and 2001’s When It’s All Over We Still Have To Clear Up. The album also includes two songs by The Reindeer Section — an indie supergroup featuring members of Belle and Sebastian, Idlewild, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub, among many others — from their 2002 album for Bright Star Recordings, Son of Evil Reindeer.

Other highlights include a cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” that was recorded as a live track for BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe’s evening session at Maida Vale in London (with a rap performed by Lowe). Up To Now also features live versions of Snow Patrol’s hit singles “Run” (from their 2003 album Final Straw) and the double-platinum “Chasing Cars” (from 2006’s Eyes Open) that were recorded at London’s Union Chapel as part of an exclusive one-off show put on by Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley to raise money for the charity MENCAP.

Snow Patrol is singer, songwriter Gary Lightbody, bassist Paul Wilson, guitarist Nathan Connolly, drummer Jonny Quinn and keyboardist Tom Simpson. Since the mostly-Irish band formed in Scotland in 1994, the band’s hard-earned rise has seen them become one of the world’s biggest bands, culminating in sales of more than 10 million copies of their last three albums, taking in Grammy, BRIT, BMI, Meteor, and Ivor Novello nominations and awards along the way.


This was just the start of my Saturday night. Jeff and I left and made our way to the Casbah to catch The Black Heart Procession to conclude an amazing Saturday night. Post on that to come.

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