Live Review: Snow Patrol, Steve Smyth

As the crowd ascends the regal stairs into the foyer of the Regent Theatre, there's a sense of occasion in the air. Despite it being a Sunday night, people here have smiles on their faces and are blissfully content to turn up to work tomorrow a little sleepy. Taking our seats, the theatre is resplendent in its gold, Roman façade and the stage looks so inviting, anyone could almost jump up and start playing.

Instead, it's Steve Smyth who comes on stage first: an imposing, hirsute man with a Gibson SG under one arm. His stage presence is intense and well suited for a theatre such as this. At different times he's caught jumping around and stomping the ground, and during one number he steps well away from the microphone to fill the Regent Theatre with his unamplified voice.

Snow Patrol might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they're here tonight in “intimate” acoustic mode, a set-up that frontman Gary Lightbody tells us is for Australian audiences only. Lightbody is charming, witty and funny during the entire set. Flanked by keyboardist Johnny McDaid and lead guitarist Nathan Connelly, theirs is a chemistry that needs little encouragement. In fitting with the Regent Theatre's design, Lightbody and McDaid open with Dark Roman Wine, followed by Connelly's introduction and Chocolate. Then – and possibly a little too early in the set – Lightbody plays Take Back The City from 2008's A Hundred Million Suns in solo mode.

From here on in, all three musicians remain on stage, traversing Snow Patrol's very impressive – and successful – back catalogue. Open Your Eyes and Run receive huge crowd participation, and new songs This Isn't Everything You Are and Cold Out In The Dark also leave their mark. The set highlight, however, is when Claire Bowditch takes to the stage to reprise Martha Wainwright's role in Set Fire To The Third Bar. An iffy version of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long doesn't quite hit the mark, and the epic Chasing Cars finishes the set.

A quick encore, which culminates in the mega-hit Just Say Yes, sees everybody in the theatre on their feet and smiling before exiting via the stairs and wandering out into the late Sunday evening.