The Q Music Club is a monthly event - run by the excellent Hospital Club - showcasing what the magazine considers the leading voices in music today. This month’s honourary salute goes to ELBOW, the influential Mancunian band, having recently released their fourth studio album, Seldom Seen Kid, with Fiction Records.
Tonight’s performance features their regular line up, with the addition of two excellent violinists only referred to as Joeti and Stella. Guy Garvey begins by thanking the crowd for choosing music over football, as it’s Champions League final night. He takes a moment to share the difficulty of growing up in Manchester and disliking football. Several growls of dismay and protestation rise from the crowd, but are quickly drowned by the sensible and relatively sober.
First song - Switching Off, from their Cast of Thousands album, is a wonderful start for the evening and it provides an insight into the reason Elbow have become so important to so many people. It is dramatic and sentimental whilst avoiding the slippery slope of pure kitsch. The playing is effortless in its professionalism, and this first song perfectly demonstrates elbow’s capability to maintain a captivating groundedness.
Fugitive Motel, from the same album spirals the room further into a morbid lullaby, on a journey which remains on the right side of beautifully morose.
Some charming banter brings it all back to perspective – Garvey could be, after all, some random guy in an old man’s pub. His demeanour is personable and relatable, and he creates the illusion of camaraderie - he could be a mate.
A first taste of their new album, Grounds for Divorce is a perfect example of how Elbow maintain their spirit and at the same time their ability to surprise and stir – this chain-gang slide blues number is doused in black humour and sadness. Guy Garvey sings like a heartbreak and like a call to man. This leads perfectly into Mirrorball, an ode to new love, and it’s all spring’s thrills of new buds and shimmering light on leaves.
The sudden shift into Some Riot is a bit of a jolt, as the subject matter, while still executed with wit, is darker again. The crowd’s reaction to this song is immediate affinity, this is one that will be played again and again in private.
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Great Expectations, from Leaders of the Free World, is more a winter king of song. Weather is themed heavily in Elbow’s music, at least in its ambience. This song causes several burly guys who would normally avoid physical contact with another man to put their arms around each other, swaying and singing along.
But this is where the performance begins to dip into that Crowded House middle-of-the-road territory – Newborn is long. Ok, so it may be a fantastic track to listen to lying on the carpet in the darkness of your room, but here, towards the end of a fairly long evening, it comes across as simply a little self indulgent. The audience certainly seems to be losing focus. It’s a track off their debut album Asleep in the Back, which might go some way to explain its unripe form.
Thankfully, the next number allows for a sing-along, as the crowd is invited to join ‘if you know the words’. One Day Like This is a simple song, but it serves nicely to gather momentum again, with a decent Blur’s Tender choral peak.
Their choice of a final song, Scattered Black and Whites, is another from their debut album. It seems like a oddly neutral choice, which unfortunately fails to leave a strong impression - regrettable at the end of a mostly tremendous performance.
At their best they have the depth and darkness of the Tindersticks and the Bad Seeds. At their weakest – dripping with sentimentality, they are in true Brit Emo mode. But the depth, maturity and integrity of their songs, and the persistent evolution of their crop, places them high up amongst the strongest links.
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