So, I went to see Elbow on Thursday...
And it was Pretty Awesome.
About a 6 hour drive to get there, which obviously was not the funnest thing ever. But at least we passed the town of Penistone and had endless fun laughing about that, because I assure you it never stops being funny.
Support band (who never told us who they were) were pretty unremarkable country and/or folk. That one song about the whisky was pretty funky though. And the one about how Andy likes to wear dresses, which may or may not have been the same song was hilarious, because Andy does like to wear dresses.
And then Elbow, which is obviously the important part.
Station Approach was very nice and slowly built up for a while (also, I am sure that Guy noticed the fact that I knew all the words and smiled at me. DEFINITELY.) then pounding drums came in halfway through and it led nicely into the total rock out of Fallen Angel. "On bass, Pete Turner!" "WOOOOO!!!". And, wow, Red is a whole heck of a lot more impressive live than it is on record, which is really saying something. "And, on bass, Pete Turner!" "WOOOOO!!!". I don't know if he was deliberately repeating himself here, or if he was just drunk. The third time was definitely deliberate though, and led to people in the audience shouting "WHO'S ON BASS?" between songs, which was hilarious.
Great Expectations (featuring Guy's xylophone solos!) was just astoundingly beautiful. It had never particularly stood out to me from listening to the new album before the gig, but it has now become my favourite song on it. Fugitive Motel was the first one where I could distinctly hear the audience singing along, which enhanced Guy's voice even more. Mexican Standoff was my least favourite song of the night, still very good, but it didn't particularly stand out ("Your sweet reassurances don't change the fact/That he's better looking than me" aside), unlike every other song they played.
Anyway, after that there was a whole lot of hilarious babble, "Pete Turner on bass, everybody!" "WOOOOOOO!!!!" of course, then someone was shouting something about a birthday, and Guy eventually worked out that it was, in fact, Pete's godson's birthday, and that Pete had forgotten, which illicited a booing from the crowd; Guy: "That's the fickle nature of the music industry, they were cheering you a second ago!"
Which eventually segued into Newborn which was just the most intense and euphoric experience imaginable. Words fail me. Just... WOW.
The problem with that, of course, is that whatever comes after it is going to look unimpressive in comparison, and Leaders Of The Free World did somewhat suffer from that. Still, it's an amazingly catchy song, and if they don't release it as a single, I will eat my firstborn (offer ends 01/01/06).
And now, this will be our last song. No, really. Honestly, we're not going to play anything after this. Really. Switching Off. "You the only sense/The world has ever made" It's probably my favourite line in any Elbow song, and the power of it comes across so much greater when you can hear with perfect clarity both Guy Garvey and a building packed full of people singing it.
Then a much more reasonably lengthed gap than the one before they started before the encore with just Guy and the keyboard player coming out to do Puncture Repair, which is incredibly simple and beautiful. Beauty in an Elbow song is nothing unusual, but it's never been so understated before. Then the rest of the band appeared, and there was, of course, one more "On bass, Pete Turner!" before they broke into a rousing Any Day Now, particularly impressive when Guy sang the "Don't play Coltrane/You will sleep at the wheel" over the audience singing "Any day now/how's about/getting out of this place".
Then Forget Myself which, what with all the climbing down off the stage and handing the microphone to random audience members to sing the chorus, I thought was the last song. But they surprised me by doing one more, and surprised me again by it not being Grace Under Pressure but rather Scattered Black And Whites. Which was as wonderful as ever, but I am running out of interesting ways to say the same things about many of these songs. :p
All in all though, it's pretty incredible that a band can fail to play my two favourite songs of theirs (Grace Under Pressure and Powder Blue, in case you were wondering) and still seem so utterly flawless and life affirming.
About a 6 hour drive to get there, which obviously was not the funnest thing ever. But at least we passed the town of Penistone and had endless fun laughing about that, because I assure you it never stops being funny.
Support band (who never told us who they were) were pretty unremarkable country and/or folk. That one song about the whisky was pretty funky though. And the one about how Andy likes to wear dresses, which may or may not have been the same song was hilarious, because Andy does like to wear dresses.
And then Elbow, which is obviously the important part.
Station Approach was very nice and slowly built up for a while (also, I am sure that Guy noticed the fact that I knew all the words and smiled at me. DEFINITELY.) then pounding drums came in halfway through and it led nicely into the total rock out of Fallen Angel. "On bass, Pete Turner!" "WOOOOO!!!". And, wow, Red is a whole heck of a lot more impressive live than it is on record, which is really saying something. "And, on bass, Pete Turner!" "WOOOOO!!!". I don't know if he was deliberately repeating himself here, or if he was just drunk. The third time was definitely deliberate though, and led to people in the audience shouting "WHO'S ON BASS?" between songs, which was hilarious.
Great Expectations (featuring Guy's xylophone solos!) was just astoundingly beautiful. It had never particularly stood out to me from listening to the new album before the gig, but it has now become my favourite song on it. Fugitive Motel was the first one where I could distinctly hear the audience singing along, which enhanced Guy's voice even more. Mexican Standoff was my least favourite song of the night, still very good, but it didn't particularly stand out ("Your sweet reassurances don't change the fact/That he's better looking than me" aside), unlike every other song they played.
Anyway, after that there was a whole lot of hilarious babble, "Pete Turner on bass, everybody!" "WOOOOOOO!!!!" of course, then someone was shouting something about a birthday, and Guy eventually worked out that it was, in fact, Pete's godson's birthday, and that Pete had forgotten, which illicited a booing from the crowd; Guy: "That's the fickle nature of the music industry, they were cheering you a second ago!"
Which eventually segued into Newborn which was just the most intense and euphoric experience imaginable. Words fail me. Just... WOW.
The problem with that, of course, is that whatever comes after it is going to look unimpressive in comparison, and Leaders Of The Free World did somewhat suffer from that. Still, it's an amazingly catchy song, and if they don't release it as a single, I will eat my firstborn (offer ends 01/01/06).
And now, this will be our last song. No, really. Honestly, we're not going to play anything after this. Really. Switching Off. "You the only sense/The world has ever made" It's probably my favourite line in any Elbow song, and the power of it comes across so much greater when you can hear with perfect clarity both Guy Garvey and a building packed full of people singing it.
Then a much more reasonably lengthed gap than the one before they started before the encore with just Guy and the keyboard player coming out to do Puncture Repair, which is incredibly simple and beautiful. Beauty in an Elbow song is nothing unusual, but it's never been so understated before. Then the rest of the band appeared, and there was, of course, one more "On bass, Pete Turner!" before they broke into a rousing Any Day Now, particularly impressive when Guy sang the "Don't play Coltrane/You will sleep at the wheel" over the audience singing "Any day now/how's about/getting out of this place".
Then Forget Myself which, what with all the climbing down off the stage and handing the microphone to random audience members to sing the chorus, I thought was the last song. But they surprised me by doing one more, and surprised me again by it not being Grace Under Pressure but rather Scattered Black And Whites. Which was as wonderful as ever, but I am running out of interesting ways to say the same things about many of these songs. :p
All in all though, it's pretty incredible that a band can fail to play my two favourite songs of theirs (Grace Under Pressure and Powder Blue, in case you were wondering) and still seem so utterly flawless and life affirming.