My almost-7-year old son attached himself to an Irish/Scottish band called Snow Patrol a few years ago. I have grown pretty fond of their “Eyes Open” & “Final Straw” albums as well. My son’s favorite song is “You’re all I have”. Brilliant bittersweet songs as one would expect from the land of Celts. As soon as we got word that they were coming to town, I had to get us tickets.
What an incredible show/night it was.
We started the night out with dinner at old Chicago..wolfed down some pepperoni rolls and then walked down to the Knitting Factory to wait in line. Thankfully the line wasn’t very long when we got there and we only had to wait 20 minutes for the doors to open. I was a little concerned about my short guy being able to deal with “general admission”. We found a spot near the rail just above the floor. Two guys around my age were standing there sipping some beers and as soon as they saw Brennan & I they offered to let us take the corner spot…perfect for someone short to be able to see the stage. I thanked them profusely. They thought it was very cool that this was his first real rock concert. My son (Let’s call him “B”) is not known for his patience but he handled the hour and 20 minutes of waiting quite well.
The plain white t’s were the opening band. I knew the name but am not very familiar with their music. When they got on stage the lead singer announced that he was very ill and rather than cancel, they were going to attempt 3 songs. You could tell he was hurting. ’B’ knew the last song they played and sang along. “Hey There Delilah”, I was impressed. I’m sure I’ve heard that song in some recent movies somewhere.
Snow Patrol made their entrance and ‘B’ was all grins and cheering. We knew most of the songs. The lead vocalist had great stage presence and was hilarious….the Irish are known for telling good stories. They sound better live than on CD. There was something uplifting and powerful….an incredible energy and emotion emitting from the band that I haven’t experienced from a live band in a long time. Kudos to the staff of the venue…they kept checking on us to make sure my little guy was ok…I appreciated that. AND they found him better earplugs…as the ones he had were kind of big and he had a hard time keeping them in. The visuals were incredible…..animated rocket ships and robots….the swirls of graphics from their latest album engulfed the band at certain moments.
A great encore came at the end….and the lost song they played….”You’re all I have”….we rocked out and sang along. An incredible show and a great Father/Son experience. Naturally I got him a T-shirt. He’s legs were exhausted and we had a bit of a hike to the car…so I put him on my back…piggy-back-style and zoomed away. We were kinda bummed mom wasn’t along…she would have loved it as well. Off to bed now. Cheers!
