Snow Patrol at Palace Theatre (31 Mar 2025)

Tour Dates

• 04/01 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
• 04/03 – Toronto, ON – History
• 04/04 – Montreal, QC – Olympia de Montreal
• 04/05 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall
• 04/08 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
• 04/11 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
• 04/12 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met

Northern Irish / Scottish band Snow Patrol just returned to the Twin Cities last night, playing the Palace Theatre on Monday night, March 31st, 2025.

Ireland’s Sorcha Richardson, with her additional guitarist and bassist Ben Bix, opened the show. Before “Smiling Like an Idiot”, the Irish singer mentioned that although she’s very far from home, she felt right at home because the Palace Theatre reminded her of Dublin and a venue called the Olympia.

Since it was just Ben and Sorcha playing the live instruments, for songs that requires percussions and dance beats, they had to rely on pre-recorded backing tracks… which meant they had to time it right or had to wait until the recording starts (something there is an awkward pregnant pause before the music starts).

 

Sorcha’s been in Minneapolis before, and she had a story to tell. About a year and a half ago, she headlined a North American tour and pre-sale tickets for all the dates were reasonably good… All except Minneapolis, of course. She confessed that she only sold 30 tickets… so she dreaded about playing Minneapolis. However, when the day came, she said it was one of her favorite shows, because those 30 people that came, they were some of the most passionate fans she’s ever met.

The duo ended their set with “Shark Eye”, which got a nice warm reception, and hopefully she will return at a later date.

Snow Patrol (singer Gary Lightbody, guitarist Nathan Connolly, keys Johnny McDaid, with touring members bassist Ben Epstein and drummer Ash Soan) seemed very happy to be back on the road.

 

For a time, it was a little rare treat to see Snow Patrol in America, when we saw them in May 2019, we mentioned, “The First Avenue show marked the band’s first headlining gig since 2012. The reason for such a long gap (seven years), was that the band was experiencing writer’s block (according to singer Gary Lightbody’s interview in the NME). Eventually the band overcame their creative struggle, and their seventh studio album Wilderness came out last year. With the new album, the band’s been hard at work getting the word out with this headlining world 2019 tour. I have to say that the long break was good for the band, they seemed happier and excited to perform and meeting their fans face-to-face. Singer Gary Lightbody’s voice is still amazing, and their hit songs like “Chasing Cars” and any songs from Final Straw (“Chocolate”, “Run”), went over incredibly well with the audience.”

Now that the band is back on the road in 2025 (they haven’t toured since 2019), they did have a funny story about how when they first landed in Minnesota the night before, that they saw snow falling. When a fan said that they must really like the weather, because their name was “snow patrol”, band leader Gary Lightbody laughed. They hate the harsh cold and snow, of course… but they did also mention how they got their name.

In early 1994, Gary and Mark McClelland, and Michael Morrison formed Shrug, before eventually changing their name to Polarbear (due to another band called Shrug). When American band Polar Bear (led by ex-Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery) threatened to sue Polarbear, they had to change their name. They refer to that time as the “snow patrol incident”, so hence Snow Patrol was born.

Snow Patrol was signed to Jeepster, who already had success with Belle & Sebastian, so many of those fans were crossover to Snow Patrol. However, they didn’t find success until they signed to Black Lion (Polydor Records) and released Final Straw, which had the massive hit song “Run”…. And speaking of “Run”, for that song, for the first time, Snow Patrol had a St Paul guest (named Nick) to help them play the song.

Snow Patrol’s latest The Forest Is the Path came out last September, and had the single “The Beginning”, which they were happy to play after “Run”.