It’s been a few years since the release of Snow Patrol’s last record, Wildness, and their last stop in Washington, DC. But on Friday, the Scots-Irish band brought a career-spanning show to The Anthem on the tail of their new record, The Forest is the Path.
The Forest is the Path, Snow Patrol’s eighth full-length album, not including compilations and singles collections. And the record may be one of their best with anthemic hooks galore, so I was really interested in seeing how these new tunes fit together in the set list.
The show was a seated affair, but as soon as the band took the stage everyone was standing and singing along to every word. Snow Patrol took the stage with the single, “Take Back The City,” from 2008’s A Hundred Million Suns with Lightbody taking the mic and moving back and forth across the stage, while both Nathan Connolly (/guitar) and Johnny McDaid (guitar/keys) rocked opposite sides of the stage, providing washes of distorted guitar.
Like I mentioned, Snow Patrol has always had these anthemic songs that mine emotions. And hearing those older songs, like “Chocolate,” and “Run” — both from the band’s third LP, Final Straw — alongside new tunes, like “All” and personal fave “The Beginning” from the newly released The Forest is the Path, showed the Scots-Irish band has a magic that still burns bright.
Not someone to stand still, Lightbody was very active, spurring a bit of laughter as he paused between songs at The Anthem on April 11. “I feel there are extra obstacles on the stage tonight,” he said. “So I’m definitely gonna fall off it, so make sure you’re filming. I’d hate to fall off the stage and no one film it.” Thankfully, he never did fall.
One thing that has to be said is how incredibly tight this band was. In addition to the Lightbody, Connolly, and McDaid, Snow Patrol’s touring members Ben Epstein (bass) and Ash Soan (drums) were incredible.
Taking a pause, Gary Lightbody, offered praise of Johnny McDaid. “I’d like to say a few words about Johnny McDaid over here at the piano here,” he started off. “At the start of this tour… Jonny had a very bad hand injury and needed surgery multiple times and he got another hand injury on the tour and needed multiple surgeries on both hands. He’s not missed one show the whole tour. Not one.” To illustrate the point, he went on, “We were in Düsseldorf in Germany and he got surgery on his hand that day and did the show that night.”
Watch the official music video for “All” by Snow Patrol on YouTube:
Snow Patrol has a knack for taking a seemingly simple line and imbuing it with a weight that packs a punch. Hearing the massive guitar crash at the end of “Open Your Eyes” or the chorus of, arguably, the band’s most popular song, “Chasing Cars” live is one of those shared emotional experiences that makes going to see a show unlike anything else.
In one of the more humorous moments of the night, as Gary Lightbody started in on the quiet part of “Shut Your Eyes,” as the crowd was to start singing along, someone shouts out something Lightbody took as “Rory!” “Rory? I think that’ s tomorrow night’s gig, mate. Turning to Jonny, “Actually your brother’s called Rory? So maybe it’s a shout out to your brother. That’s the first shout out your brother’s had on stage. That’s very deep knowledge.”
The next time Lightbody got the crowd to sing quietly, someone shouted out “We love you Nathan!” To which he told the crowd, “We love Nathan, but we are being quiet ‘cause this will go on for a while.”
After a beautiful version of “Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol finished their regular set with “You’re All I Have” before coming out to encore with, as Lightbody described, “A quiet song and then a loud song” with “What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get?” and a rousing “Just Say Yes,” from Up To Now.
The setlist included:
Take Back the City
Chocolate
Called Out in the Dark
All
Crack the Shutters
Run
The Beginning
Storm
Talking About Hope
Open Your Eyes
Make This
Shut Your Eyes
Heal Me
Chasing Cars
You’re All I Have
Encore:
What If This is All
Just Say Yes
Here are more photos of Snow Patrol performing at The Anthem on Friday, April 11, 2025. All photos copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.
Here are photos of Sorcha Richardson opening at The Anthem on Friday, April 2025.
