Live Review: Snow Patrol, Husky

It's the first time acoustic folk duo Husky have played at the Palais Theatre so they're pretty excited, especially considering they just live around the corner. Their warm synchronised piano and guitar rhythms are delicately crafted and flow beautifully together for a calming effect on the audience.

A backdrop of the spaceman featured on the cover of Snow Patrol's latest album Wildness illuminates the stage. "It's so good to be back in Australia, we've missed this place," says frontman Gary Lightbody, before launching into Take Back The City. He immediately requests the audience get up out of their seats and stand up. It's their first headline show in Melbourne since 2012 when they performed an acoustic show. Tonight they've returned with the full band and a brand new album. "It took us fucking long enough!" Lightbody exclaims, and reveals it was due to some epic writer's block but well worth the wait. They continue with their lead single Don't Give In, which is somewhat of an anthem for their comeback. "Life On Earth took five years to write and it means a lot to me to play live," he says, and he performs it with so much heart and soul that we feel all the blood, sweat and tears that they've poured into it.

We notice Lightbody is looking very casual in his jeans and a brine coloured t-shirt. He quickly shares an important lesson about tumble drying and informs us that he had picked out a really nice shirt to wear and washed it before the show but it shrunk. "When I put the shirt on I looked like the hulk," he laughs. He does a little crouching move to recover from almost falling on his face mid-way through their new single Empress and makes it known to us that he's quite accident-prone, so we should expect anything can happen during the rest of the show.

Run is a huge moment and Lightbody is overwhelmed by the incredible audience response. "People ask us if we ever get sick of singing the same songs over and over again and I tell them, ' Fuck no,' 'cos that happens and then I'm thankful for being alive," he says. They've messed around with a version of Open Your Eyes for a few weeks before tonight's show and absolutely smash it out of the theatre tonight with a massive build-up and explosive, supercharged chorus to give the beloved track a whole new life. We can tell that Lightbody is really enjoying himself and it's clear that so is everyone else in the audience. They quickly dive into an encore with a stripped-back version of What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get? before Lightbody reveals they'll be back in Australia next year. Their final track Just Say Yes is a fitting reply for the audience to sing out and welcome their return.