The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

REVIEW: Snow Patrol concert at Ward Park, Bangor

Around forty thousand people attended Snow Patrol’s second homecoming concert in Ward Park, Bangor. An excellent line up included General Fiasco, Band of Horses and Lisa Hannigan. This was certainly one of the largest ever concerts ever witnessed in Northern Ireland, right up there with U2’s triumphant gig in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens.

BY BEN FINCH

Openers General Fiasco visibly relished the opportunity to play in front of such a large crowd and fans were in for a treat. Out of the blocks with ‘Dancing with Girls’, the band joyously raced through their set, slowing only for an excellent acoustic version of ‘Sinking Ships’. General Fiasco certainly showed that they have the ability to play in front of what must have been their largest crowd to date.

Band Of Horses followed, laughing and joking throughout the set, clearly enjoying the day’s event.

The delicacy of Lisa Hannigan’s songs was lost in the chatter of the crowd. Those distracted missed the ethereal beauty of “Sea Song” and “Lille.” The wisdom of having Hannigan play third as the crowd approached forty thousand must be questioned. Unfortunately it was only during a cover version of ‘Personal Jesus’ that most took much interest. Hannigan and her band were excellent but would be much better suited to a small, intimate venue where the intricacies of her music could be appreciated.

Most of the crowd were only in Ward Park for one thing: Snow Patrol. As the sky clouded over and their set approached the excitement was palpable. When the first chords of “Open Your Eyes” were strummed the crowd erupted in jubilation.

Lisa Hannigan joined the band instead of Martha Wainwright for ‘Set Fire to the Third Bar’ and the second half of the performance was accompanied by the string quartet from Elbow’s ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. The whole crowd were in voice as “Chasing Cars” and a reworked version of ‘Run’ were played. The set however did fall flat at times, particularly throughout the less popular ‘Just Say Yes’ and ‘Take Back the City’.

The set itself differed very little from last year’s tour and even from Snow Patrol’s previous concert two years earlier. Despite this, the weather and the support made this an excellent concert enjoyed by the vast majority in attendance.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Arts + Ents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.