Snow Patrol, Jenny Lewis @Palais Theatre, Melbourne(02/04/2009)

Sat 4th Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

In her first ever trip to Australia, it seemed a little disappointing to see many empty seats during Jenny Lewis, who was opening the Palais Theatre stage for an apparently more popular act. In a casual getup alongside her great band, Lewis impressed the devoted with her incredible vocal display – running through a set list that relied heavily on her brilliant new solo effort, Acid Tongue, instead of dwelling on her Rilo Kiley days.

An earlier than expected starting time for Lewis meant missing the first couple of songs, but it was treat to arrive in time for Jack Killed Mom, a delightfully evil new song that tells the tale of a boy learning violence from his mother and eventually killing her. The rollicking build as the song progressed was impressive and contrasted well with the next number, Godspeed, which saw Lewis take a more subdued approach on the piano and focussed on her vocal rather than the romping guitars.

The band acted as a choir for Acid Tongue, with harmonies you couldn’t help but pay attention to. Of course, this suited Lewis’ soul vibe perfectly and was a great break from the band-heavy numbers. The guitar focus returned shortly after, though, with The Next Messiah pulling the attention of the unwary, before most of the band yet again departed for the cover duet of Love Hurts – which Lewis most certainly did justice to.

Right on time, Snow Patrol emerged onto a blacked stage to headline the evening. In a little trick to force everyone to get excited about their new material, they opened with just that – If There’s A Rocket Tie Me To It. The number was a useful opener for Snow Patrol, considering it introduced early the band’s tendency for songs that build from seemingly nothing into epic climaxes. One other thing it demonstrated is that the band’s new material, which seems a little weaker on A Hundred Million Stars than previous records, is much more powerful live. This wasn’t just a fluke, either, as they proved it several times over the 90 minutes that followed.

The strength of Snow Patrol’s previous two albums became immediately evident, though, with a string of favourites getting most of the crowd on their feet. Chocolate, Hands Open, Spitting Games and How To Be Dead all featured early in the set and along with the impressive light show (that Snow Patrol always seem to bring along), they excited the crowd easily.

Snow Patrol have come full circle here in Melbourne town. In 2006 they played the Theatre formerly known as Metro, before making two bigger trips in 2007 to play Festival Hall and later Rod Laver Arena. This time the boys were back in a space that suited their sound, and the annoying confines of being stuck behind a seat was made up for with the fantastic sound quality of the venue (which was a big benefit for Jenny Lewis also). This sound quality was most evident when Gary Lightbody lost the band to begin Run all on his lonesome. When the clapping of the crowd faded, his voice was unmarked, but of course that clapping kept creeping back, and before long the band had returned to bash the ending of the song out.

If anything can be said for Lightbody, though, it’s that he’s a brilliant front man. He’s funny and he doesn’t hesitate to interact with the crowd – opting to stop what he was doing to answer yells. He likes his water, too, consuming countless bottles and quipping that he should either get one of those hamster bottles or a permanent drip so he had fluid intake whilst singing. He’s also intent on getting the crowd to participate excitedly – a fact all too clear in Shut Your Eyes when he spent ages instructing the crowd how to finish singing the song with him. Chasing Cars followed, though, and (surprise surprise) didn’t need the same encouragement to get people singing along.

Newies, Crack The Shutters and Take Back The City appeared before Open Your Eyes to finish off the set and were again all performed with spot on sound and with loads of excitable energy from the band – guitarist Nathan Connolly and bassist Paul Wilson certainly had their happy faces on for the evening. The encore was made up of What If The Storm Ends?, which once again demonstrated the epic ‘build up’ formula quite well, and You’re All I Have and a crowd pleasing Eyes Open.

Snow Patrol are arguably a much better live band than they are a recorded band. That’s not to put their records down; it’s just to say that the energy and performance they inject into their live show is very impressive. It’s much better to see them performing in a venue like the Palais, too, which admittedly doesn’t give patrons room to dance freely, but does do the band’s sound much more justice than other cavernous venues.