Live Review: Elbow – Horden Pavillion, Sydney

Like a slightly overweight messiah bathed in blue light, Guy Garvey lopes across the stage. A cheeky smile and a wave of his hand is all he needs to get the whole audience whistling the same tune.

Elbow might be on stage in the Hordern Pavilion, but with every conspiratorial comment it’s as though we’re down the local pub with Garvey, wondering who those guys playing the instruments are.

As the band play Lippy Kids, the whole audience breaks into a communal whistle and Garvey is the merry conductor. A pulsating piano chord creates the backbone to this whistle-fest.

But after all this audience participation, the band decide to huddle over the keyboard making this a moment for them. And, as if he needs some family time, Garvey tells the crowd that they’re all going to go over to Craig’s house [the keyboard player].

The band raise a drink “to Sydney” and begin what Garvey says is the “only song we wrote about us”.

Everyone recognises the track, ‘Weather to Fly’, from their Mercury Award winning album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. But a hushed silence falls as the crowd listens to a slowed-down, acoustic version.

Once they’ve played the first verse, Garvey sings the line “Are we having the time of our lives” in falsetto and tells the audience “sounds a bit patronising that line actually”. Once again it’s as though we’re all down the pub sharing anecdotes with the cheeky chap who always seems to prop up the bar. But Garvey doesn’t let us forget his superstar status for too long when the rest of the band wake from hibernation and finish what they started – Weather To Fly with full band, only they’re plugged in at this stage.
While Garvey dominates with his personality, the rest of the band seem content to back him up with their beautifully-arranged music. And while they might be missing the full orchestra that enhances their albums, the violinist is enough to give us an essence of Elbow. And there’s no denying how strong their melodies are.

The band appear for an encore wielding a trumpet each. Starlings gets an outing as the band become their own brass section.

But it’s the last song that’s the most confusing. Has Garvey managed to smuggle a choir into the auditorium? Elbow play One Day Like This and it’s undoubtedly the song that could end a gig, start a gig and make even the most depressed Wolves fan smile. Not only does Garvey manage to get everyone singing along, he gets them to do it in harmony.

But he knows it’s an exceptional moment. So he stands back and lets the audience continue longer than he intended. As he waves goodbye, Garvey grabs the mic and sings the classic Madness line “It must be love”. On cue, the crowd answer him “Love…love”, and Elbow skip off stage. The feeling is clearly mutual.

By Richard Gadsby

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