Snow Patrol, Nouveau Casino, Paris

Bill Borrows joins 400 Parisians for a first preview of the new, heart-warming album from Gary Lightbody and his band

The Nouveau Casino is neither nouveau nor a casino but it has been sold out since Snow Patrol announced a small six-date European tour earlier this year. That much is hardly surprising. The venue only holds 400 people and after the success of the last album (Final Straw sold more than two million worldwide), appearances at Live8 and a support slot with U2 last summer they could have sold out the Nouveau Casino 10 or 20 times over.

Fans who had been unable to get tickets mill around the entrance in the unrelenting Parisian rain. 'Will you say hello to Gary [Lightbody] for me?' asks one. 'Okay,' I say and she gives me a letter to give him. If you're reading this, I'm sorry. I forgot. I feel terrible about it but if it's any consolation he seems to be having the time of his life.

Paris is the last date before the band cross the Atlantic to promote Eyes Open, their fourth album (out here on 1 May) and the gig is pretty much a straightforward showcase with eight tracks from the new album and eight from Final Straw. But it doesn't feel like a showcase; there is something more engaging about it, like a secret gig for family and friends in what remains of a derelict brothel.

The venue, all faux chandeliers and dark purple walls, might lend the occasion a certain something but the relationship between the band and those who love their music is the key. As Lightbody puts it: 'There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it's a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you.'

The vast majority of those present will not have heard the new material before so the band open with 'Wow' and 'Chocolate' from Final Straw before ripping into 'Beginning To Get To Me' from Eyes Open. In truth, there is no need to break the audience in gently. They get it. 'I wanted something that was purer than the water,' Lightbody sings, 'Like we were.' It's classic Snow Patrol. All past tense and regret.

Lightbody might look as if he has been dressed by an eccentric aunt who runs a charity shop (and tonight he is wearing something like a halter neck top) but when it comes to delivering a soliloquy about broken love he has few peers.

'Merci... merci beaucoup,' he says, as if he might be about to fail his GCSE French oral and the crowd check to see if their cameraphones have caught the moment before going wild. And he smiles something that can be described as a shit-eating grin and we're back into Final Straw again ('Spitting Games') before 'Hands Open' and 'Headlights' from the new album. There is something close to an obsession here and it might be mutual.

The new tracks ache with ambition. The subject matter is familiar but there is a new breadth and depth and confidence. 'Hands Open' in particular has got stadium written all over it but not in a pejorative sense. It just deserves the largest possible audience and the paying public in Paris instantly know that - the chorus is actually fighting to get out of the building.

And a wider audience is nothing less than the band deserve. They have been together for more than a decade, endured a name change (originally called Polar Bear they were forced to reconsider when suits representing ex-Jane's Addiction bass player Eric Avery drew attention to the fact that his band shared the same name), changed label and the line-up. They have basically served their time as a band and that experience shows. Only six dates in and they are tight and enjoying themselves. 'I was gonna dive in [to the crowd]' laughs Lightbody after 'Headlights', 'But you all looked terrified... you bastards.'

From the rocking Johnny Marr-flavoured opening of 'Headlights' to the soulful introspection of 'Grazed Knees' and 'Chasing Cars', the audience are by turns animated and engaged in the business of rocking the foundations and then gazing at the stage while in a different place altogether. Two twentysomething women next to me are actually crying as Lightbody urgently whispers 'If I just lay here would you lie with me and just forget the world'- although, to be fair, they are also very drunk.

When the band play 'Run', the top 5 UK single from Final Straw, the two women are hugging. Everybody else is singing along, word perfect. The show ends with 'You're All I Have' (the first single from the album and due out on 24 April). It grabs you by the lapels, pulls you up nose-to-nose and implores, 'Just give me a chance to hold on'. Okay, you got it. For an encore they begin with 'Open Your Eyes' (an expansive track with a kind of Joshua Tree-era U2 type influence) and finish with 'Tiny Little Fractures'.

'This has been the best night so far, thanks very much,' Lightbody says as he leaves the stage... 'next time we come back we'll play some old songs.' There was no need for an apology.

The band are due to fly to the States the next day and the management are keen to get them back to the hotel but their fans are not going anywhere. Twenty minutes later the band are signing autographs, posing for pictures and, in Lightbody's case, being kissed on the cheek quite a lot. He is in his element.

For a man who writes about loss and the transient nature of happiness he might like to reflect on this moment because if Eyes Open enjoys the kind of success it deserves he will not be playing the Nouveau Casino again. Or indeed anything like it.