A two-hit no wonder

Back in March, British press darlings Snow Patrol warmed up for a high-profile gig at the South by Southwest music festival with a seemingly negligible show at Spaceland. How quickly the foursome’s achingly beautiful songs won over the modest midweek crowd was a harbinger of tours to come.

“America was surprisingly good to us,” guitarist Mark McClelland said last month from London, in between one of the band’s many European festival appearances. “The one thing you hear over in the U.K. about America is that it’s hard work. You go to places where people have never heard you before, and you have to take the bad with the good.”

It’s been increasingly good, thanks in large part to two hit singles: the dizzying indie rock whirl “Spitting Games” and majestic, string-drenched ballad “Run.” Now the quartet, whose breakthrough album, “Final Straw,” has sold 123,000 copies, is selling out increasingly bigger venues all over America, including shows in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington. Snow Patrol makes its third trip to L.A. this year for a show Tuesday at the Avalon. It, too, is sold out.

“American crowds were great,” McClelland said. “It was just like being at home.”

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Snow Patrol, Avalon, 1735 N. Vine St., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Tuesday. Sold out. (323) 462-8900 or

www.avalonhollywood.com.