There are probably many ways we all get to go to gigs……Sometimes the band we are going to see are
favourites, sometimes they are of interest through hearing a couple of songs,
interesting review, know someone in the band, get in for free so it doesn’t
matter who’s playing & sometimes you get roped in to going by friends,
family etc.In this case for me it was
the latter.Never really being an “Elbow”
fan myself although admittedly, their tunes are inevitably familiar & with
particularly, the excellent “anti Bush” “Leaders of the Free World” had
made me have a bit more of a listen to what they were saying, rather than how
they sound as of late.Tonight’s gig
started for us walking into a seriously busy Monday night Academy, obviously
popular chaps!Scandinavian, Denmark
to be exact “prog rock” support band “Mew” were unfortunately getting
towards the end of their set.From what
I heard, very interesting & another “new” band who inevitably, sound like
an old band or a mix of old bands at least.This is a phenomenon that I seem to come across increasingly
nowadays.Interestingly, particularly in
the press, there are claims that the seemingly masses of spacey British “hippy”
type bands & American “new romantic” bands are being hailed as new &
fresh?Very good some of them may be but
new & fresh?I think not…Maybe all the journalists are too young to
remember all this stuff first time around?Anyway, disregarding my ramblings,“Mew”, on the evidence of the couple of songs we saw tonight are
worthy of some of the plaudits given to them & in these days of musical,
artistic & social malaise should give enough to the kids of the computer
age to make a success of themselves (think I’ve been reading too much lately!).Already on their third album, although the
first two I believe were mainly Swedish only releases, I’m sure they will be
regulars on MTV. If you have teenage kids & have to suffer that in your
house.On to headliners “Elbow”.As I mentioned earlier, the venue was
ridiculously full tonight & with over eager punters shoving a bit too much
for a view of their hero’s I’m uncomfortable before the band start.What follows, I’m sure, is a good rendition
of, as I mentioned earlier, familiar songs from their 3 albums, “Asleep in
the back”, “Cast of Thousands” & the new “Leaders of the free
world”.I actually enjoyed a few of
them myself but there is an overall feeling, or something about “Elbow”
that just leaves me a bit flat. Enigmatic singer “Guy Garvey” would make
a living as a stand up comedian I’m sure, he has a great rapport with the
audience, which is great to see but……Although I recognise he is a really good technical singer, his voice
gets on my tits!It is almost choir boy
like in it’s clarity & precision & coming from someone dressed like one
of the “Wurzels”, although fitting a theme as we are in Bristol,
not really my idea of rock n roll.There
are many that will say that they indeed are not & that I am missing the
point, this leads us back to the beginning of the review, I’ve never much been
into “Elbow”!Unlike the rest of
tonights crowd who absolutely loved them!
