Live: elbow @ Hordern Pavilion 26/3/2012

I wasn't going to go.

It being Monday night, concert at the Hordern Pavilion (Less intimate, more chances of sound going wrong, 2nd concert for the amazing "build a rocket boys!" (My #2 of 2011), expense, transport, etc., etc.

I was giving myself endless reasons to give this a miss.

As it happened, Lady Luck took a pity and a friend had a spare ticket owing to someone being out of the country.

This concert wasn't too far removed from the one I attended last year - Review here.

Guy Garvey was still perversely interested in Sydney fingers (& nails); he still gestured and pointed at audiences; he was more jovial and playful; there were sing-a-longs; hands waving and they were all clearly having a great time, as were we.

Performances were also top notch:  Guy was in fine voice and the band were sublime with the tender songs and rocked with gusto when called for.  The minor glitch when Guy repeated a chorus instead of launching into the bridge only showed how much he was in the moment; like some beauty spot on an otherwise perfect face..

They have been together some 22 years (Longer than some marriages) and this shows in their comradeship and playing; and the band even used this excuse to have a toast on stage.

It's no secret the boys like a drop.

I'd be the first to sing their praises and decry what an injustice it is that they have not taken the world by storm; but that would mean sharing them with everyone else.

Till then, I remain selfishly silent.

Some promos from their recently re-released deluxe editions of Leaders of the Free World (2005) & Cast of Thousands (2003):

build a brewery boys!

elbow's Beer Money Helps Thousands in East Africa

They're mine! All mine!

Some Videos... ;-)

Some music clips I've enjoyed this year (Apart from ones already posted) to tide you over your holiday season:

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2012!!!

2011 Best Of (Roundup)

It's been a busy, busy year with it's fair share of ups and downs; but we're not here to talk about that... 
May this year saw the birth of this blog and by Sep/Oct, I'd encountered a writer's blog of sorts - What to include/exclude; self-doubt in the form of not being a fully-fledged journo; and taking it all way way too seriously!

(Deep Breath... here we go!)

MUSIC

1.  Destroyer - Kaputt
2.  Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
3.  Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
4.  My Morning Jacket - Circuital
5.  White Denim - D
6.  Tom Waits - Bad as Me
7.  Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
8.  Radiohead - The King of Limbs
9.  Portugal. The Man - In the Mountain in the Cloud
10.  Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
11.  PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
12.  Wilco - The Whole Love
13.  Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
14.  Bright Eyes - The People's Key
15.  Beirut - The Rip Tide
16.  Middle Brother - Middle Brother
17.  Atlas Sound - Parallax
18.  Feist - Metals
19.  Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
20.  The Antlers - Burst Apart
21.  Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
22.  Active Child - You Are All I See
23.  Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
24.  tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL
25.  Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
26.  I'm from Barcelona - Forever Today
27.  Grace Jones - Hurricane / Dub
28.  The Horrors - Skying
29.  St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
30.  The Field - Looping State of Mind
31.  TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
32.  Gotye - Making Mirrors
33.  Stephin Merritt - Obscurities
34.  Yuck - Yuck
35.  Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
35.  Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
36.  Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
37.  Panda Bear - Tom Boy
38.  Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
39.  Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
40.  Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
41.  The Dears - Degeneration Street
42.  Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
43.  The Black Keys - El Camino
44.  R.E.M. - Collapse into Now
45.  Battles - Gloss Drop
46.  Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
47.  Modeselektor - Monkeytown
48.  Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town
49.  The Wooden Birds - Two Matchsticks
50.  Woods - Sun and Shade

Special Mention:
Although The Flaming Lips hasn't offiicially released any LP this year, they have released many pricey and elaborately packaged EPs and a 6hr song followed by another that's 24 hours.  Details here (Updated).

Concerts Attended (Unreviewed) and Missed Concerts:
Attended both Okkervil River (A generally good night with later songs excelling) and Bright Eyes (A real dynamo onstage; with quieter performances commanding the audience' attention especially on Lua) and missed out on Explosions in the Sky's concert in Dec.

Ommissions:
So, no Drake (Rap's not my thang), James Blake (Just not gettig the hype), Adele (She's everywhere!), Lady Gaga (Not me), The Kills (The slow numbers are dreadful) or Susan Boyle.


MOVIE

Drive - Can't say enough about this movie!
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, it's a film noir drama bound to be a cult classic.
Genre defying, it has heart pounding action (Although not the bulk of the film as most would be led to believe); romance (Not your chick flick sort); humour (Not the LOL sort); bizzaro Lynchian moments; heavy character study; gritty violence and gore!!

More here.


TV

Just got onto "Sons of Anarchy" (Seasons 1 & 2 was only released in Australia this year), hence the frantic catching-up.  I find the series highly addictive as it has just the right blend of action/
tension/drama/comedy.  Great story line, well-scripted and acted, and the pace kept just right.
The lead character perfectly played by Charlie Hunnam, is part of a bikie gang.  He is conflicted between his deceased father's original vision for the club and it's law-breaking present.  To further complicate matters, he has just become a father himself and finds himself torn between duties.
All the characters are thankfully three dimensional, which is a nice departure from your usual 2D
TV personas.

Breaking Bad continues to confound, intrigue & entertain!

Looking forward to another year of top notch entertainment!

Wishing all my readers a great and safe holiday season,
Alex

Live Review: elbow @ The Enmore Theatre 29/07/2011

 

 

Possessed of one of the most beautiful singing voices, Guy Garvey, potential poet laureate, lead singer and frontman of elbow believes Sydney has beautiful fingers.
Don't ask, you had to be there.
Fact is, judging from the crowd's response, some of those fingers were Mancunian.

elbow is not your typical rock band.  Shorn of the typical rock star egos and posturing, they are instead humble to the point of having their name in lower case.  So humble, that Guy suggested one day they would like to support their opening act, Matt Corby.  That's perhaps s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it.

Guy's humble demeanor makes an elbow concert feel like one in which you're amongst friends.  He often pointed and gestured to acknowledge almost every individual in the crowd and when he had us going, hands were either aloft and waving, clapping to the beat or punching in the air.

Audience particpation was high on the agenda tonight as he began teaching us a song line by line until it became too long to follow but also ended as a joke!  The whistling parts in Lippy Kids were turned into a call-and-response, but he was good humoured enough and acquiesced to the audience' cheeky out-of-tune whistling.  Further rapport was forged when Guy descended from stage to shake some hands.

At one point, yours truly was moved to tears by the sheer beauty of a song.

Celebrating 20 years in the business, but only ten with a recording contract and five stupendous albums to show, there was a round of drinks on stage as the crowd appropriately sang Happy Birthday to the band.

It's criminal that they remain largely a well kept secret despite winning the below accolades:

• The 2009 Brit Award for Best British Band
• Two Ivor Novello awards
• The South Bank Show Pop award
• The NME Outstanding Contribution to British Music award, and
• The Mojo Magazine Song of the Year 2009 for One Day Like This
• The Mercury Music Prize for 'The Seldom Seen Kid in 2008
• The Mercury Music Prize nomination for Build a Rocket Boys! in 2011

It's possible they're too British for an American audience, but I love them all the more for it.

When asked what he should sing, Ralphie (Sp?) from the audience suggested Hallelujah and for a moment there, we thought we were in for a treat.  In all likelihood, they're probably brushing up on the lyrics for their next live performance.

Perhaps they could play the Sydney Opera House next?

♥,
Syd.  8.9/10

PS.  Sorry that there are no accompanying photos - They were all lost after an iPod update!
        Modern technology, right?

Many thanks to Carina N, we now have the setlist:

(Could've sworn they also included
An Audience with the Pope)

This now concludes my week of exhaustive debauched concert-going and soul-feeding.

Upcoming Concerts: Jul/Aug 2011

WooHoo!
Looks like the end of July is going to be busy...

25th July 2011 Modest Mouse
Hope they play material from their yet-to-be named new album produced by Outkast's Big Boi!
Now @ Enmore Theatre!

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/modest-mouse-recording-new-album-with-big-boi/

27th July 2011 Devendra Banhart
Hope it's new material. Squeal!

"Are those grapes..?!?" 

26 July 2011 The Kills

Hope they skip the ballads...

29th July 2011 elbow
Hope they keep the ballads &
Waiting for ticket...!!

... and on 20th August, Gotye @ Sydney Opera House looks a definite:

Art Center Stage
Animated Album Extravaganza

http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/gotye.aspx?start=yes


... and Battles Dec/Jan

How diisttturbbiingg

 Phew!

Live Webcast: Elbow @ St Paul's Cathedral

Absolute Radio hosts this momentous occassion where a rock band gets a first to play the crypt in London's St Paul's Cathedral.

If, like me, you're not too keen on waking up at 4:00am to catch the radio broadcast of this event, head over to: http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/artists/Elbow/article/3928-Elbow+at+St.+Paul's+Cathedral  to catch the concert and an interview by Dave Gorman.

This is a definite precursor to whet my appetite for July 29's concert at the Enmore Theatre.

Essential viewing.

Guy Garvey croons some.