Snow Patrol gets a warm L.A. welcome

In the middle of a heat wave, L.A. hardly needs a Snow Patrol, but the broody rock band nevertheless received a hearty welcome during its sold-out show Thursday at the Troubadour.

The quartet got its start in 1997, when Northern Irish singer-guitarist Gary Lightbody and bassist Mark McClelland met at school in Scotland. The group first hooked up with influential record company Jeepster, where its moody expansiveness fit perfectly alongside Belle & Sebastian, then with the same label.

Its major-label debut, “Final Straw” on A&M;, recalls the epic bedroom pop of fellow Scottish act Mull Historical Society, along with such post-punk American college rock as the Pixies and Throwing Muses. Abetted by an extra keyboardist, the players on Thursday offered an hour’s worth of tunes drawn mostly from “Final Straw.” Though not enduringly memorable, such numbers as “Chocolate” and “How to Be Dead” had immediate hooks and made for pleasant, erotic washes of sound, often aggressive and unfailingly lush. Lightbody sang the yearning, obsessive, contemplative lyrics with a slow-rising buoyancy reflected in his gradual, blissful smile.

The album creates a more epic experience, but the concert still conveyed a grand sensibility and sweep, a la U2 or Coldplay, yet fortunately less pretentious. Lightbody’s guilelessness lent deep feeling to such standouts as “Run,” which he dedicated to his ailing mother. The song unfurled like a wave of contradictory emotions, all passing successively across his face, from eyes-screwed-shut anguish to wide-mouthed, beaming joy.