Snow Patrol, a band more accustomed to filling 20,000-capacity venues like London’s O2 Arena, treated fans to an intimate performance at the 1,500-capacity Koko—a refurbished gem in Camden, London, that reopened in 2022. The venue’s grandeur has already won over other artists, including Liam Gallagher, who praised it as a “great gaff” after his show. Yet, Snow Patrol’s real challenge wasn’t the setting but introducing their evolving sound to a loyal audience that largely came for the hits.
Kicking off with the anthemic “Take Back the City,” Snow Patrol wasted no time igniting the crowd. Gary Lightbody, the band’s charismatic frontman, had the audience singing along effortlessly—no need for prompts. The band then transitioned into “Called Out in the Dark” from their 2011 album Fallen Empires, taking an unexpected turn toward funk that added an exciting twist to the set.
The night hit a sentimental high with “Run,” the song that turned many casual listeners into diehard fans. Lightbody, a master of crowd dynamics, knew exactly when to let the audience take over, their collective voice reverberating through Koko like a congregation in full worship. With instruments falling silent, the band’s decision to allow the moment to breathe magnified the emotional resonance.
Despite the strong pull of nostalgia, Snow Patrol boldly ventured into new material immediately after “Run,” a risky move that paid off. “The Beginning,” from their latest album, The Forest Is the Path, captured the crowd’s attention with the poignant lyric: “There is nothing for me in these past lives, there is only what I wasn’t yet.” The fresh tracks like “All” and “These Lies” mesmerized with introspective lyrics and stirring melodies, especially the latter, where Lightbody’s delicate falsetto over a melancholy piano left the venue in awed silence.
Lightbody’s solo take on “Set the Fire to the Third Bar,” originally featuring Martha Wainwright, was a heartfelt highlight. The setlist was packed with crowd-pleasers like “Chocolate,” “You’re All I Have,” and, of course, the beloved “Chasing Cars,” although the band wisely resisted using it as a playout or pre-encore track. Instead, the night’s standout was “The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?),” which began with an unsettling piano before exploding into a tempest of searing guitars and emotional intensity.
What set this performance apart was Lightbody’s ability to tackle deeply personal themes—love, loss, and internal conflict—while maintaining the euphoric atmosphere of a live show. His self-deprecating humour, especially when he joked about forgetting lyrics, kept the mood light, even as the band explored heavier emotions.
The night concluded with the uplifting “Just Say Yes,” leaving the audience on a high note. Snow Patrol’s triumph at Koko lay in their ability to connect with the crowd intimately, a feat often lost in the vast arenas they usually play. They proved, beyond doubt, that their new material holds its own against classics like “Chasing Cars” and “Run,” solidifying their place in the hearts of fans, old and new alike.
Why don’t Snow Patrol ever play Edinburgh