I was at the Theater at Madison Square Garden last night to see OK GO and Snow Patrol. OK GO was fun and entertaining. Snow Patrol exceeded my expectations. Emotional rock (EMO rock) is very popular nowadays. Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Keane, Postal Service, and Death Cab for Cutie are all in the same genre, and most of them know each other well and/or were discovered by the same A&R guys.

Yes, rock is dead. But I still like this Northern Ireland band very much. And so do thousands of screaming teenage girls. Gary Lightbody has to be one of the friendliest rock stars around. He talks to the audience after every second song. He lets a girl sing the female vocals to their UK hit, "Set The Fire to the Third Bar," at each concert. Last night, he let 2 girls sing it, and they did a great job. I was smack in the middle of the age range in the crowd of 4,000. There were many parents and older couples there. So I'm not yet the geezer in the audience.

I'm impressed by the audio quality of this cell phone bootleg. Here is the encore song, "Open Your Eyes."

And here is their greatest song, Run (radio edit, 2004).