Last night I went to see Elbow play at the Colston Hall. Jenn has already blogged about how awesome the gig was and frankly there isn’t really any point in me talking about it, as she has already done so more eloquently than I could possibly hope.
But… there are a few things that she didn’t mention about the gig, which I have to talk about here besides how amazing the whole thing was.
Firstly, I have never been to a gig where everyone was so polite. Normally at gigs, being short in stature, I spend my time trying to stare between the shoulders of taller people whilst bracing myself for the incoming barrage of elbows into my torso as people shove past me. Well not this time. There was room to move around in the crowd, I could see the stage and the band as no one felt compelled to push as far forward as they could and everyone who was moving through the crowd actually said “Excuse me”.
Weirder still, was the fact that between some songs the crowd was silent. Not just quiet, but silent, as if we were all at there between movements at a classical concert. Guy the lead singer was just as surprised as me. We were all there just waiting, rapt… (I was reminded of the green alien thingies in the machine in Toy Story in fact).
Guy (I feel like I know him now) talked to the crowd, was funny and came across as a genuinely nice bloke.
And finally, the band. They played perfectly and this combined with the fact that we were stood slap bang in the middle of a proper concert hall, roughly where row K would have been if the seats were there, a little way back from the stage just meant everything sounded incredible. Studio quality, as if it was the album, but played beautifully and live, just for us.
The perfect gig? I always maintain that the next one is the best one, but whoever that turns out to be, has got some big shoes to fill.
Elbow, Bristol, 9th April
9½/10