On a warm Sunday night, with the sun dipping behind Smeaton’s Tower and the sea stretching out into the horizon, Snow Patrol closed out Plymouth Summer Sessions 2025 with a headline set that was as emotionally resonant as it was effortlessly powerful.
Of course, the venue did half the work before a single note was played. There’s something undeniably special about live music by the sea: gulls overhead, the breeze off the Sound, and golden-hour light casting long shadows across the Hoe. And, when the musical act in question is one with a plethora of chart-topping hits, stirring ballads, and stadium-sized choruses – like Snow Patrol, for example – it’s not hard to see how this had the makings of a special night before the first chord was even strummed.
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Opening with a punchy Take Back the City, the band wasted no time connecting with the crowd.
From there, it was an expertly paced ride through the band’s back catalogue, with Chocolate and Called Out in the Dark bringing a bounce that had even the back rows moving. By the time Run came around, just four songs in, it was clear this was no slow-build set. Gary Lightbody, ever the textbook frontman, let the crowd carry the chorus in a moment of spine-tingling singalong from an audience who were clearly down to join in.
Snow Patrol tapped into that energy with ease. Their set, spanning early favourites and more recent deep cuts, moved between quiet introspection and euphoric release without ever feeling forced. Lightbody’s voice – open, steady, and always sincere – carried across the open air with the clarity of someone speaking directly to you, even in a crowd of thousands.
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Of course, Chasing Cars was the inevitable emotional peak.
Thousands of voices rose in unison, a moment of mass catharsis that Snow Patrol have mastered over the years. And yet, the band still had more to give. You’re All I Have closed the main set in roaring style before a two-song encore gave us the aching What If This Is All the Love You Ever Get? and the euphoric release of Just Say Yes.
Snow Patrol didn’t need gimmicks or grand gestures. The power was in the restraint, the sincerity, and the way their songs seemed to stretch wide enough to hold the whole of the South West sky. If the Plymouth Summer Sessions is about celebrating music in beautiful places, then this was the blueprint. A band still in love with what they do, a crowd ready to receive it, and a setting that turned it all into something quietly unforgettable. What a night.
