I went with my girlfriend and a couple of friends to see Snow Patrol play on Saturday night at the Millenium Square in Leeds. We turned up a bit early so went for something to eat in a nearby Thai restaurant (where I proceeded to eat the finest salad I’ve eaten in my entire life – in fact it may well be the finest dish I’ve eaten in my entire life, but that’s another story). We stuck our heads out the door a couple of times to make sure they weren’t on – although that salad was so good I’d have happily missed the gig to lick the plate clean.

Once the food was eaten we went across the road to the venue. I saw Embrace play there last year and once again was surprised how many people you can fit in the square. It wasn’t too long before they came on and started playing some of their trademark songs.

We weren’t too far away from the stage and were pretty close to one of the speaker towers so it was a good vantage point (and as we were near the edge we managed to avoid most of the glasses of beer being thrown around).

They played a selection of songs mostly drawn from their current and previous albums with one from their second.

Gary, the lead singer, had lost his voice on tour and this was the second gig since they started up again so he apologised for the quality of his singing! To be fair he was a bit croaky to start but within a couple of songs was happily hitting the high notes!

I was really looking forward to seeing them as I’ve listened to Final Straw over and over since it came out – an instant classic. Then their new album Eyes Open came out and it’s even better!

They certainly didn’t disappoint – they played really well and the stage banter was entertaining too. Before I knew it they’d played their last song and it was time to go home. On a hair related note I see he decided to cut off his long curly locks in a John Conners way, but I’m sure he wasn’t copying me. 😉

Highlight of the evening? Ben drove us and when he parked outside the venue he said “do you want the bad news or the bad news?”. With little choice I replied “the bad news”. It turned out the bad news was that he’d dropped his car keys down a drain! So in true MacGuyver style we had a look in the back of his car and found the shoulder strap for a bag. We broke the spring clip off the end to leave a small hook-shaped end. While one held the drain cover up Ben reached his arm down into the abyss, hooked the keys and brought them to the surface. Success! And nobody got hurt!