The day after the 2009 Mercury Prize nominees were announced, art-rock crooners Elbow — last year’s winners with The Seldom Seen Kid — hit L.A.’s Wiltern Theatre for what felt like a meeting of fond old friends. Every song was met with yawps of glee, and frontman Guy Garvey chatted up the crowd like chaps having a pint in a pub, frequently inviting the room to join him in song, even pulling two kids on stage to help “conduct” everyone through the climactic singalong of first-set closer “One Day Like This.”
We were informed after the first song that the band’s equipment was lost in pan-Atlantic transit, and encouraged to applaud the crew for scrambling to assemble the stage. But despite playing on borrowed gear, their sounds of modern romance — a lot of Smiths, a little Bryan Ferry, and a sledgehammer’s kiss of Peter Gabriel — were lush and evocative, from the overture horn blasts in “Starlings” to dreamy love letters like “Switching Off.” Slow-dancing spread like schmoopy wildfire, as for whatever reason the group’s set list drew heavily from the balladeering end of their catalog’s spectrum; this choice caused sections of the night to drag, but threw extra weight behind more explosive numbers like “The Bones of You,” the rubbery “Leaders of the Free World,” and “Grounds for Divorce,” on which Garvey whacked spectacularly at a pair of toms between verses. No matter the tempo, it’s the rhythm of Elbow that generates the band’s strength — every song is both anchored and floated by a pulsating beat that gets in your legs, eminating from a tribal drumbeat, shakers flicked in unison, the whisk of a pick across six strings. A series of dates opening for Coldplay is on the horizon, and perhaps that’s a good chance for Chris Martin et. al. to osmose a little soul from these Manchester lads, who seem to know innately what it took their impending headliners until “Lost!” to find out.
Calling all Elbow fans in the room: Anybody catch this current tour? What do you think of the band’s transformation into a tighter, more commercial outfit? Why do you think they’re not more successful stateside? And have they made the most of their tenure as Mercury champs this year?
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I’m jealous because I have loved Elbow for months after seeing them perform at the Brit Awards. Their album is so different, and like the Kings of Leon, I can’t get enough of the sound of the lead singer’s voice.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to check the tour schedule.
I’m a long-time Elbow fan who is on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Not enough chance to see them here, and to have to buy Coldplay tix just for the privilege…*shudder* But I will be at their solo show in Atlanta and can hardly wait. Hope the exposure they’ll get with Coldplay will wake up more music-lovers in the States – they deserve so much more recognition than they get over here. As for their “tighter, more commercial” sound – I think they still sound as emotionally resonant as they ever have, and I’m confident success won’t spoil them. They’re just not about hits – the only one they’ve had was, I think, rather accidental – and as long as that’s true they’ll be OK.
I saw Elbow the first time they played in LA 8 years ago, when they opened up for Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain show. They won me over then, and I’m still a fan. Saw them at Wiltern Wed. and they were just amazing. I think touring with Coldplay will give them their deserved exposure. I don’t know if this will ruin things, but I’m hoping not. Guy seems like a regular, um, guy and will probably be able to write great songs, and make an arena crowd think they’re in a pub in Manchester.
I saw the brilliance that is Elbow at the Wiltern for the first time and it definitely won’t be the last. I think Guy and the gang will stay true to themselves and I say cheers to them if they win over more US fans. They definitely have one in me!!!
I found Elbow in October, and was thrilled to see them open for Coldplay on July 25. They are even better live, and I can’t wait for them to conquer the states! Actually, Coldplay and Elbow was the best concert I’ve ever seen.