Snow Patrol in NJ

saw Snow Patrol this weekend in camden. yeah, friggin’ Snow Patrol cos for weeks straight i played the shit out of Eyes Open so call me a big fat gay pussy for seeing them live; i can take it.

i missed the first fluffer band cos i was busy being lost in camden, which is one of the last places on earth you want to be lost in. gary lightbody, the Patrol’s lead man, was razzing us about the crime in camden and he’s from fucking glasgow so you know camden’s got some serious street cred.

i arrived in time to see part of OK Go’s set, which i found a little chaotic cos there were 4 dudes on stage playing in front of a massive screen showing video of a wall-papered man dancing, mannequins in various stages of undress and a lot of other junk. i didn't know where to look; i felt sorry for the drummer who didn't get his own spotlight; and i grew weary of the vocals that were high, nasal and flat, like they graduated from the Coldplay-Radiohead-Death Cab for Vocalists School. summary: love the logo, even if it's for a band called gook; not so wild about the music.

Snow Patrol puts on a solid, if not dazzling, show; and the articulate & animated lightbody quickly established a rapport with the audience by dissing camden. he pulled a volunteer onstage to sing the martha wainwright part of “Set Fire to the Third Bar” and i'm still mega-bummed because had he plucked me out of the crowd and not some chick named amy who didn't even know the damn words to the 2nd verse, i could have been Discovered and vaulted into fame like courtney cox. right now i could be in LA laying down trax with DLo and hangin' out with maynard and them guys, talkin about how art is resistance and all. instead i'm in delaware drinking ass coffee. the world's not fucking fair.

anyhoo, back to camden. with the exception of “The Finish Line,” which kicked off Snow Patrol's encore with each band member adding another layer to the sound as they staggered their entrance back on-stage, the songs sounded pretty much like they do on the CD: v good, but not earth-shattering. but hey, not everyone’s Nails. i’ve been spoilt.

i tell ya, though – it was a little weird being at a PG show, with maw and paw and chilluns in tow. where were the piercings, the tats, the morbid goth-ness and the sea of black? and as far as i could tell, security didn’t have to pull anyone from the pit. i wonder if those guys draw lots for shows, or whether there’re some homeboys who’d rather pull 60 bodies out from a Nails pit than sit through a entire Damien Rice or Snow Patrol show. i’d like to think so, but i’m a romantic at heart.

if you made it this far, here's Treats for EarsnEyes:

-- SP's "The Finish Line," from Eyes Open. if it weren't such an earworm, i'd just lay me down to eternal sleep with this song. i'm done with this, i'm counting to 10...

-- NIN's "eraser," live from the fall of '05. now this is performance: freese lays down the drums; aaron "it's not gonna suck itself" north arrives en scene with sinuous guitar that curls around your guts and pushes them right up to the space behind your eyeballs; reznor chews up a back-up guitar line; and even skank-ass twiggy sounds good on bass. plus, if you haven't been in a pit with a bunch of angry white dudes bawling KILL ME you haven't fucking lived brah.

-- "failing" - obligatory lohner. a little outtake action from Black Light Burns, the brainchild of DLo and wes borland, who used to play dress-up for limp biskit but the photo below wipes away all his black sins, past & future. "failing" didn't make it onto the Cruel Melody album (due to hit the streetz in june) prob bec it just noodles around & goes nowhere, but i like the guitar.

[danny lohner & wes borland]