Snow Patrol & Swim Costumes

Oooooh, I am a lucky, lucky girl. I saw Snow Patrol LIVE in DC last night. I took off of work and hour or so early, let out Antonio, and jumped into Rob and Jill's car to head down to American University. Oh my God, what fun.

Well, let me restate. The first band, Silver-something, was awful. No enunciation at all so I couldn't understand what they were saying. In addition, it was practically a one man show because the lead singer/guitar player sang and head banged and danced all over the stage while the other band members stayed put. It was kind of cool that there was a girl in the band, but she might as well have been a guy because she brought zero personality to the show. Bad, bad, bad.

The second band was OK Go, known mostly (or so I think) for the "Here it Goes Again" video on YouTube of them on treadmills. (You can view it here. Trust me, it's worth it.) They also told us that they have a new video out to "Do What You Want," so go and watch it here.

Phew! So two bands down and the arena was filling up. While we waited, we played "I Spy" games, such as "Find the Oldest Person in the Room," or "Find the Couple Having the Worst Fight." And while we were doing all of this people watching, we noticed a peculiar occurrence in the next row. It was a woman. With a rat's tail. Wearing a vest of patches. Hmmmm. She wasn't with a boy scout troop or anything - we looked. Just there. At a Snow Patrol concert. In patches.
This is her rat tail. My apologies that the photo is blurry, as I was trying really hard not to make it obvious that I was taking a picture of her. I didn't want her to know that I was making fun of her. (Although I'm pretty comfortable doing it here, aren't I?).





This is a close up of her badges. There's a Blueridge Parkway Badge, an Alaska Badge... I wonder if Cham also has a badge vest that she adds to when she completes a hike. Cham?



Here's a pic of Rob, Jill, and I waiting for Snow Patrol to start.


Okay... so the show.... was AWESOME. They sound amazing live, and they chat and tell stories and laugh the whole time. It is a laid back concert in that you just felt comfortable, but it was fast and flashy and upbeat, without making me feel old.

This is the start of the gallery of photos and videos. If you zoom into the photos they are blurry because my camera had a hard time zooming and focusing in the flashy lights, but they look great at this size. :)

This was cool. They had the audience hold up their cell phones like lighters. It was the neatest effect. I kind of looked like those sea anemones that glow in the dark because it was a moving mass of lights.

One of the stories they told was about an interview they gave before the show. The concert was in an arena at American University, so the "Green Rooms" were essentially the sports teams' locker rooms. Anyway, he gave an interview in the girl's swimming team locker room and said that he felt like a bit of a pervert when he realized that their "swim costumes" were hanging out in the open for all to see. Funny little Irishmen.


Here is a partial video of "Shut Your Eyes."


This is a video of Snow Patrol performing "Set Fire to the Third Bar." The cool thing about this video is that an audience member, Valerie, performed with the band in place of Martha Wainwright. I hope Valerie finds this - it would be pretty special for her to have, I think.


This last video is actually two songs... I started taping "Light Up" and couldn't stop because they launched into "You're All That I Have" right away.