Just another music lover's gig review blog.

Richard Ashcroft (moments before hissy fit)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

ELBOW, The Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 29th of July 2011

THIS REVIEW BROUGHT TO YOU BY EMBEDDED YOUTUBE LINKS!!!! CLICKY!!!!!!!!

The second show on my Sydney agenda last week was Elbow, the likely lads from Manchester. Elbow had been enjoyed slightly passively by contemporary rock audiences, but became much beloved after their Mercury Prize winning album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' was released in 2008. They toured Australia in 2009 on the back of that gem, and their Brisbane Tivoli show is permanently etched in my mind as one of my top 10 live concert experiences (full list TBA). So naturally, I was determined to see them at the Enmore, coincidentally just around the corner from some dear friends of mine who were equally as keen. Perfect!
The Enmore pretty quickly reminded me of the Tivoli in its set up and vibe, however the back half of the GA area had an awkward slanted floor, which could be avoided depending on how avid a fan you were. There was also a mini bar at the right of the stage for a few refreshments which I thought was nifty if you didn't want to go too far to get more drinks! (No wine though, sadface.) We settled in a good, flat position, only just missing out on the support act Matt Corby. Sorry Matt Corby.
Hey Guy Garvey!


Frontman Guy Garvey and band arrived (Drummer Richard Jupp, brothers Mark and Craig Potter on guitar and keyboard respectively, and Pete Turner on bass), and opened with the powerful droning beats of "The Birds", the opener of this years album 'Build a Rocket Boys!'. The song is pounding, evolving, and enlightening with a hint of mystery, and as it built up onstage supported by the grating yet delightful howl of Guy's vocals, I remembered why Elbow's live performance is so high up the list for me. The song is good on the album, it's quite great really; but absolutely nothing beat this live version of it. They took a great song and turned it into an amazing layered journey of heartfelt emotion.
It was all up from there, as they continued with "The Bones of You", a standout from 'Seldom Seen Kid'. It prompted one of those heart-in-throat dance-like-a-knob-head moments from yours truly, which continued for all perfect 5+minutes of the song. As they did at the Tivoli, the mirror ball was on for of course, "Mirrorball", performed effortlessly and prettily, thanks in part to Craig's beautiful keyboard playing.

Pete and Richard, Guy's friend in need*

The 'Seldom Seen Kid' tracks continued with crowd pleaser "Grounds for Divorce" and mournful "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver", complete with violinists, with its peak moment at the completion of the second verse exploding with emotion and loss. It almost.. ALMOST... reached the musically orgasmic moment in this Abbey Rd studios performance (and in that they had the BBC Concert Orchestra and London Choir for help). That is how good a live band they are peeps.

Those album tracks were broken only by more 'Build A Rocket Boys' songs and a brief selection from 2005's 'Leaders of the Free World', the only Elbow album I don't have. One of these was "Puncture Repair*" which was introduced at length by Guy who decided to tell us the story behind it. While Richard was away from his drums momentarily, Guy explained how he (Guy) was going through an awful breakup and really needed to talk to someone at a ridiculous time in the morning, when he called Richard, who came and listened and made him feel good and fed and watered him and sent him on his way. He then instructed us to cheer on Richard as a surprise when he came onstage again, whom had actually heard the whole thing. Naww, chums. Luckily it was a very simple and sweet song to boot, otherwise it would all have been a bit weird.er.
Guy's onstage banter continued throughout the show; his charm and charisma is akin to that of a more suave and less idiotic David Brent, in his manner and jokings. He quite clearly exudes an air of self confidence finely bordering on arrogance, which is broken from time to time as he jokes at his own expense, displaying that he really doesn't take himself (or the band) too seriously as other bands of their caliber can dangerously do. While replicating "Weather to Fly", a completely missable song on the album, but an absolute wonder to hear live (thanks also to a live-only acoustic intro as done at the 2009 show), Guy's voice broke a little trying to hit the high notes. Instead of trying to pretend it didn't happen, he laughed and remarked "I really should write songs I can actually sing", and luckily got there in the end. I should mention that before this song, Guy announced that it was their 20th year as a band, and the whole group toasted with a drink to mark the achievement. Twenty years! I had no idea. It's not as easy as you'd expect to find many bands going that long and not only still recording, but still recording amazing, critically lauded material as they are now.
Guy also loves to manipulate the audience at his will and kept asking us to show him our fingers (aka spirit fingers), and also chat and sing with him. At one point he challenged members of the audience to come up with a classic, well loved song that everyone would know. He went from audience member to member, telling hollerers to shut up, until he agreed on "Hallelujah". But that was it, no quip about it or cover of the song or anything. Cheeky bastard.
They finished pre-encore with "Open Arms" an appropriately anthemic ending to their set. As I half suspected, the encore first included "Starlings", in which the band all brought out brass instruments designed only for this song, to play mostly one note. But of course, completely necessary. They also had Australian flags coming off the trumpets which you can't see in this picture.


They finished with "One Day Like This" a power ballad of sorts, used by the BBC for the Olympic games according to a few concertgoers (Confirmed by Wikipedia! Wikipedia also notes that Elbow, which I once used to call the intelligent person's Coldplay, OPENED for Coldplay on their 2009 US tour. k.wtfever.). It was a perfect finish. Tears in eyes, hands clasped tightly together, smiles all round.
The only only thing that is a pretty big thing IMH (in my head) but probably not an uncommon or significant thing in general, is that, they did not play anything pre- 'Leaders of the Free World'. That is, there was nothing from their 2001 debut 'Asleep in the Back', which is my personal favourite and an absolute masterpiece if you ask me in my opinion, or the also excellent 'Cast of Thousands' from 2003. I can forgive them, as they did play a few from these on their 2009 tour, including "Any Day Now" and "New Born" (the album version...ahhhh) which both brought me to sniffles due to being of course hauntingly beautiful, so I still have that very good memory. It would have been really amazing to hear them again though. But I can't ask for the world, so I shall forgive them.

And I think Elbow forgive me for being a little disappointed about that. They may not forgive me for once calling them the intelligent person's Coldplay though... fuck they are so much better in every way than Coldplay. No offense to anyone who likes Coldplay.

p.s. I think Guy Garvey is one of the few people in the world who actually looks better with a bit of chubba on him. Here in this Newborn clip he just looks odd.

NINE OUT OF TEN UK FLAGS! EVERYONE LISTEN TO ELBOW RIGHT NOW. I HAVE EVEN MADE IT EASY FOR YOU.


Monday, August 1, 2011

PULP. Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, 27th July 2011

A few years ago if you were to ask me which bands I really wanted to see before I died, Pulp would probably have not made the list. Not that I didn't enjoy their music at that point but I really wouldn't have expected them to regroup for a tour, so the thought would not have occurred to me. Enter the SPLENDOUR lineup for this year, and that was all I could think about for a good solid week. PULP? REALLY? HECK YES I WILL. I'M THERE. THEY'RE MY FAVOURITE!

Uuuunfortunately $550 off the bat is hard to come by, and I had to compromise on a ticket where they were the biggest drawcard. Luckily, a sideshow at the Hordern Pavilion was a good excuse to catch up with some Sydney friends, as well as get a better show than Splendour could have allowed. Everyone wins! Except that I didn't get to see Kanye's ballerinas. Ah well.

I had hyped up this show for months in my head, and couldn't wait to hear some of my favourite songs sung by the legendary Jarvis Cocker in the flesh. There was no way it could be a let down. The Hordern was brimming with loads of patrons my age and younger (which surprised some, as Pulp's heyday was when I was about 12), and was a pretty decent venue for something called a pavilion- much more laid back, easy to access and much better set out than the Brisbane Ent Centre or QPAC.


Local act Belles Will Ring came on as support, and were an appropriate and entertaining choice, bringing some gritty sixties pop sounds to the stage. They had a slightly Shin's style, but with extremely catchy guitar driven licks, rather than a lyrical focus. With hand-claps and a Zooey Deschanel stand-in with not much more than a tambourine, their songs were upbeat and had a slight surfey vibe combined with some wonderful harmonies. The five piece appeared no stranger to live performance, and played very tightly as a group, both guitarists feeding off each other with each change of pace. Either I recognised a few of the songs or they were the type of tunes I could easily get stuck in my brain.

Despite my keeness for Pulp, I was happy to hear more and I am keen to check out their catalogue. But OMG THEY FINISHED IS IT PULP TIME YET?!
As I waited with the crowd (only one person from the front, HUZZAH), in immense anticipation, a screen hiding the unlit P U L P neon signs began to sport some green lasers projected on to them, forming words asking us questions such as "WELL, ARE YOU READY?" "DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT WITH ME? OKAY, MEET ME AT THE BAR" "DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME?" and "WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A DOLPHIN?".... dolphin cartoon ensuing. The questions were mostly met with excitable cheering and were a nice little intro to the set... but by the last one I was a bit over the novelty and just wanted to see the band come on.
Soon, as promised, the opening chords of "Do You Remember The First Time" began, and the neon sign lit up behind the screen. As the music built up, the screen awkwardly fell down (I assume it was to come down at the beginning of the first chorus in one easy swoop! But life.) revealing Jarvis, Russell, Mark, Nick, Steve and Candida in all their glory. Large band.

As expected, I could not fault the performance of one of their best songs... They immediately sounded amazing, guitars echoing and drums pumping better than on record, and Jarvis crooning like he was still anticipating the year 2000. After a fantastic opener, Jarvis had a little chat with us about the weather, and on they went again. Not only did the frontman add a healthy bit of banter in between each song, but it was exceptionally difficult to tear your eyes off him during each song.

watch that maaannnnn

He was so involved with every word, every syllable, and every beat with full energy, bending and shaping hisbody in time with the music like it was his life force. At the end of a few of the songs, he seemed to dramatically collpse in a heap; as if putting so much energy into each movement was completely exhausting. Despite this tiring, his humour and charm did not fade a second. He is one of those fantastic frontmen, who despite his 50+ age (to the shock of some concertgoers), has you in the palm of his hand, totally wanting to succumb to his in your face sex appeal. All he had to do was take off his jacket and tie to get the ladies screaming, which he found quite amusing.

Ladies, please.

With help from the exceptional guitarists, synth, and strings at some lucky moments, he painted a complete picture during each song, drawing you into the stories, moods and emotions... During "F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E." he took you right there to the core of that awful but awesome feeling (called love), climbing up on the stage during the appropriate verse (see pic below), and jumping up and down like the world has rightly gone mad during the explosive chorus. I was soooo happy to hear "This Is Hardcore", one of my favourites, and Jarvis and the band took you through those dark dirty fantasies as portrayed in the lyrics so that by the end of the song you feel like you've gone through it, leaving you a bit rough, overwhelmed, and a little guilty. "Sorted for E's and Whizz" was introduced with Jarvis deciding that their smoke machine was actually pumping out amphetamine gas and we were all about to feel a little strange. During "I Spy", he stepped down to the front audience to shine a green spytorch into the crowd, as he sang to them into the microphone (naw not me.) Afterwards he shared his amusement that one of the ladies he had pointed the torch to could only ask (in a put on ridiculous voice) 'Are you gonna play Babies!? Are you gonna play Babies?! ' which was his introduction to "Babies". Ahhhhhh a definite highlight, and probably my favourite song.

"So what do I do? I've got a sightly sick feeling in my stomach... like I'm standing on top of a very tall building..."

"Common People" was an ultimate crowd pleaser and everyone sang their hearts out (eh, anything could have been going on onstage and they would have been satisfied). But what exactly do you do for an encore? "Like A Friend" and "Live Bed Show" saw us out, with a personal highlight "Misshapes". My fist got a bit pumpy there, sorry audience. I would have liked to hear "Party Hard" as I heard they did in Melbourne, as well as some "Razzmatazz", but really, even the songs I'm not as keen on were absolutely excellent tonight, and those I more passively enjoyed (e.g. "Bad Cover Version" and "Sunrise"), were so much more appreciated after their on stage performance.
Everything about the show was executed with extreme vibrancy. It was more than just a concert, without needing anything more than a fabulous frontman, brilliant musicians, and okay.. a little bit of lighting for effect.
Maybe they are only back for the cashies, but they look like they are having the time of their lives and would happily be doing this for free. Jarvis may have always been a skinny odd chap, and getting on in age, but just like Bowie, he still absolutely shines with sex appeal, rockstar presence, and that special x factor you can't quite put your finger on.

It has been a pretty good year so far for international live music, and this one takes the absolute cake. I really don't know how I can fault this performance, but I'll give myself room to move.
9 and a half flung knickers out of 10.

That happened too. No, they weren't mine.