Feature Dvd - Live At Somerset House
The Age
Friday February 4, 2005
DVD REVIEW: Live at Somerset House, Snow Patrol (Universal) 120 mins (approx) M15+ ***?
It's remarkable that Snow Patrol are not huge in Australia. Their brand of instantly hummable rock sits snugly next to most Australian success stories. In Britain, along with Keane, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers and the Scissor Sisters, 2004's rock props belonged to these Irish-Scottish rockers, and their first DVD is worth a look. The uninitiated should head straight to the extras. A Japanese tour diary opens with four average-looking Glaswegian blokes with skin a pasty shade of white, sunning themselves. As you sift through the three featurettes, the image of who this band are comes into clearer focus - hard-working musicians with a good sense of humour and perspective. Faced with a colossal tent full of Japanese fans at the Fuji Festival, a clearly touched lead singer Gary Lightbody looks consideringly at the audience. "I'm really sorry, I don't know Japanese," he says, pausing. A shrug and an emotional "f wonderful!" is all he can muster in the end. The rest of the feature deftly illustrates both Japan's and the band's idiosyncrasies. While Snow Patrol's third album Final Straw sold over a million copies last year when it was originally released, the band was on its knees and about to be dropped by its record label. The anthemic Run practically became a national anthem and the rest is history. Indeed, the three excellent video clips here probably had bigger catering bills then the entire budgets of their previous work. The band's success is contrasted by a documented trip to the US (Final Straw is at the lower echelons of the Billboard charts, selling more than 100,000 copies there), where they are slowly building a reputation. 4-Play Home compiles a British television feature during their first substantial trip back to Ireland. Whether it's intentional or not, the Belfast footage is dour and grainy as the band huddle together in the miserable weather. What's warmer is meeting Lightbody's father, who is radiantly proud of his son's achievements. The centrepiece of the DVD is a live show recorded at the spectacular venue of Somerset House last year. A more rocking proposition than Final Straw indicates, it's here their melodic skills become flagrantly obvious. There's the visceral pop hooks coating Chocolate, the drama of Run, the brisk jangle of Spitting Games and the anxiousness of Wow. For once, the filming is sharp without being jittery. This very watchable DVD documents a band that despite toiling exceptionally hard, can't seem to believe their luck. -- ANDREW MURFETT
© 2005 The Age
