We knew what we were going to, a retrospective journey over their entire being, with re-works of well known, old, new, and un-played songs live before, unlike some in the audience who were expecting a normal Snow patrol set.
Superb sound was essential, and we got it, to hear the vocals of many (to us) unknown songs. The first part of the set started slowly, but soon kicked in. Musically excellent and very interesting, vocally brilliant, and there was some excellent banter from a, self professed, nervous Gary Lightbody. (Only nervous because this was so different and it was the first night - he even wore a suit and tie through the WHOLE evening!)
There were up to 17 or 20 musicians on stage at any one time, with seemless changes of instruments, and the whole evening was just great. By the end, it was clear that the band were on song, had enjoyed the evening and it had gone really well. They must have worked pretty damn hard to get this sorted to this fine tuned show on a first night.
Thanks Snow patrol. Anyone going to see them on this tour, I hope you enjoy it as much as us, but don't expect normallity!!