Snow Patrol threatened to be renamed Rain Patrol as the clouds moved in for the last of Meadowbank’s T on the Fringe events, and by the time Elbow arrived on stage the heavens had opened and the rugby pitch was slowly churning into a mud pit. The band seemed to sense the low-key atmosphere, and it was only with ‘`Leaders Of The Free World’, dedicated to ‘`the cross-eyed cowboy, George Dubya Bush’, that they upped the tempo, and that the clouds finally began to clear. Their intelligent but modest brand of rock might not have brought Meadowbank to its feet, but at least it had brought the sun out.
By the time Snow Patrol took to the stage it was turning into a pleasant evening, and there were more than a few sighs of relief that the mud bath had been avoided. Opener ‘`Spitting Games’ suffered from a plague of PA problems, but by the time the chugging bass of ‘`Wow’ erupted across the stadium they appeared to have got their act together. There was none of the technical wizardry that Radiohead had bamboozled us with earlier in the week, and certainly none of Beck’s puppetry, but they put an old-fashioned light-and-smoke show to good use as they bounced their way through a selection of songs from new album ‘`Eyes Open’, in addition to almost all of ‘`Final Straw’. Lead singer Gary Lightbody admitted that this was their ‘`biggest gig ever in Scotland by miles’, the childlike grin plastered across his face belying their obvious nervousness, before ‘`Chasing Cars’ acted as a timely reminder of what Snow Patrol do best ‘` epic, heartfelt anthems, the natural successors to U2’s void-filling stadium rock. Hopefully tonight will have dispelled those nerves, and they’ll be packing out stadiums for some time yet.
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