Elbow - Royale, Boston MA May 12, 2014

Elbow

Royale

Boston, MA

Monday May 12, 2014

Support – John Grant

Every now and then you are given moments like the ones that happened at the Elbow show last night. One of the finest sounding and well mixed shows these ears have laid a listen to in a long time is just the tip of the iceberg.

Taking the stage about 930pm to a sold out audience it was a series of quick waves and then right down to business. Singer Guy Garvey was in fine vocal form. This was the bands second stop on the current US Tour and you'd hardly notice a kink with the music or the flow. There were seven people on stage (including two string players) and many swapped instruments after each song. Pete Turner (bass/keyboards) did the first few songs seated playing keyboards and guitarist Mark Potter went electric to acoustic, to 12 string and back.

Before “New York Morning” Garvey talked about how this was a song that given him the opportunity to have met Yoko Ono, and that moving forward he'd me mentioning famous people he wanted to meet, just for that reason. So he introduced the song as “Liam Neeson and Me”. Some other fun banter was a story about heartache and taking the heartache of others and feeling their pain, but realizing that Roxy Music had already wrote “Dance Away the Heartache”, so they dedicated “Real Life (Angel)” to Brian Ferry. There was just so many fun moments.

The set flowed wonderfully and Garvey was just so very charming. At times bands can go on and on with the talking, but when its fun and sincere you actually look forward to the next time he speaks. He was always gracious to share the stage with a member that might have had an extended solo during a song, he'd call back to “Craig Potter on the keyboards!”

The encore began with"Lippy Kids" and everyone was happy to sing along and shout "build a rocket boy!!!. The absolute payoff was “One Day Like This”. One of those songs with an extended sing along sections the band harnessed the ravenous fans and kept egging them on. It may have felt like it was going on for too long, but when Garvey had the female string players sing harmonies with the audience the hair on your neck stood up. It was one of those “moments” that sometimes catch you off guard and swirl around your head and down your spine. Chills. Absolute chills.

Smiles and waves and a group bow signaled the end to one of the finest shows in a long while. How this band is not huge in the US is both an injustice and very confusing.

I recorded the show on my PCM-M10 so I was able to go track by track..the set list:

Intro Music

Charge

The Bones Of You

New York Morning

Real Life (Angel)

The Night Will Always Win

Fly Boy Blue/Lunette

The Loneliness Of a Tower Crane Driver

Great Expectations

Scattered Black and Whites

Mirrorball

The Birds

Grounds for Divorce

*Happy Birthday to Julian (monitor engineer)

My Sad Captains

E:

Lippy Kids

One Day Like This

See them live, thank me later.