Thursday, September 07, 2006
When You Travel People Lose Your Shit
By Josh Lamkin
SNOW PATROL
Sept. 6th, 2006
The Tabernacle
Atlanta
special guest: Augustana
I feel kinda bad for Snow Patrol because the world, or at least the world of guitars, amps, and electrons, seemed to be against them last night at their show at The Tabernacle. "When you travel, people lose your shit," said Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. Apparently the band was playing with a bunch of rented amps and stuff. It did not go well for them.
Right from the beginning of the show some kind of craziness was happening with lead singer/guitarist Gary Lightbody's (awesome name--had to say it again) guitar and the sound was wobbly and seemed to cut in and out a bit. Also the bass amp was freaking out. Like really freaking out. Low, spleen-rattling feedback. During the first or second song, bassist Paul Wilson actually started smashing his bass on the ground as if it was the end of a Who concert or something. By the end of the show Wilson had also karate kicked the bass amp several times. Honestly, the Snow Patrol guys seemed genuinely upset and nervous about the sound problems but never threw a rockstar tantrum or anything, and as a result the audience was 100% on their side the whole night. That actually made the show memorable and made me like these guys.
I hadn't heard a ton of Snow Patrol stuff before the show. I LOVELOVELOVE the song "Chocolate" and their song "Run" is pretty good and couldn't have been a cooler song in concert with the audience singing the last chorus by itself. Snow Patrol had such bad sound problems during the song "Chasing Cars" that they actually played it again during the encore (which they waited like five minutes to come out and play). The show overall was pretty solid considering I'm sure it was hard to get a groove going with the sound problems--they really were this bad, I'm not dwelling on it. Lightbody has a very cool charisma and charm and sort of does strange things with his arms and body during the show and seems like an indie-rock Joe Cocker at times.
My favorite thing about this show, though, was the opening band, Augustana. I think they're from San Diego. They were fantastic. Lead singer Dan Layus has an awesome voice, and their songs were great, melodic, catchy, very well put together. Listen to some of their songs on their myspace page. Tell me if you don't agree. I was looking forward to seeing Augustana actually because I had read their bio on their website and loved it. Their bio is really sincere, personal, and humble. Come to think of it, their music seemed the same. I really must check out more of these guys.
I wish we'd gotten to the show earlier so I could've caught more of Augustana, but we were held up trying to park. On the way in, however, my second favorite performer of the night did an impromptu show on the sidewalk. A homeless guy yelled very loudly, "My name is Mr. Hambone and I wanna party all the fuckin' time! God bless you boys--can I have a couple dollars."
Sept. 6th, 2006
The Tabernacle
Atlanta
special guest: Augustana
I feel kinda bad for Snow Patrol because the world, or at least the world of guitars, amps, and electrons, seemed to be against them last night at their show at The Tabernacle. "When you travel, people lose your shit," said Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. Apparently the band was playing with a bunch of rented amps and stuff. It did not go well for them.
Right from the beginning of the show some kind of craziness was happening with lead singer/guitarist Gary Lightbody's (awesome name--had to say it again) guitar and the sound was wobbly and seemed to cut in and out a bit. Also the bass amp was freaking out. Like really freaking out. Low, spleen-rattling feedback. During the first or second song, bassist Paul Wilson actually started smashing his bass on the ground as if it was the end of a Who concert or something. By the end of the show Wilson had also karate kicked the bass amp several times. Honestly, the Snow Patrol guys seemed genuinely upset and nervous about the sound problems but never threw a rockstar tantrum or anything, and as a result the audience was 100% on their side the whole night. That actually made the show memorable and made me like these guys.
I hadn't heard a ton of Snow Patrol stuff before the show. I LOVELOVELOVE the song "Chocolate" and their song "Run" is pretty good and couldn't have been a cooler song in concert with the audience singing the last chorus by itself. Snow Patrol had such bad sound problems during the song "Chasing Cars" that they actually played it again during the encore (which they waited like five minutes to come out and play). The show overall was pretty solid considering I'm sure it was hard to get a groove going with the sound problems--they really were this bad, I'm not dwelling on it. Lightbody has a very cool charisma and charm and sort of does strange things with his arms and body during the show and seems like an indie-rock Joe Cocker at times.
My favorite thing about this show, though, was the opening band, Augustana. I think they're from San Diego. They were fantastic. Lead singer Dan Layus has an awesome voice, and their songs were great, melodic, catchy, very well put together. Listen to some of their songs on their myspace page. Tell me if you don't agree. I was looking forward to seeing Augustana actually because I had read their bio on their website and loved it. Their bio is really sincere, personal, and humble. Come to think of it, their music seemed the same. I really must check out more of these guys.
I wish we'd gotten to the show earlier so I could've caught more of Augustana, but we were held up trying to park. On the way in, however, my second favorite performer of the night did an impromptu show on the sidewalk. A homeless guy yelled very loudly, "My name is Mr. Hambone and I wanna party all the fuckin' time! God bless you boys--can I have a couple dollars."
cromulently posted by Josh Lamkin at 8:45 AM
1 Comments:
Yah Snow Patrol definitely didn't try to over do it. I'd put them in with Death Cab and Nada Surf (now THEY are great!) I think in the end, Snow Patrol's songs are mostly kinda same-y for me. Except that "Chocolate" song. Have I mentioned I can't get enough of that one?
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