See This Show!

 

 

 Last night was the Elbow/Air Traffic show at the Depot in SLC.  I can’t begin to tell you how incredibly amazing this show was (Oh, Ok, I’ll try).  

The Depot is such a great concert venue; everything you could possibly want in a club, but because it’s 21+ only it doesn’t get a lot of newer bands, which is a real tragedy because all the other music clubs in town suck a**.  So it was a rare treat to see bands like Elbow and Air Traffic playing there.  

 

Opening act Air Traffic took the stage promptly at 8:00 (thank you Depot–all you other music clubs: go thou and do likewise!) and, though they look like they’re about 17 (actually, they’re all about 22), they have a mature presence on stage and a very confident and professional air even when things go wrong, as they did last night.  Guitarist Tom Pritchard’s guitar cable went on the fritz about halfway through the band’s second number, and it took until the end of the song for the tech to figure out the problem and get a new one out onstage.  The band soldiered on, however, even making a joke about the absent guitar part in the song.  Pritchard gamely laughed along, claiming that the song sounded better without him (it didn’t).  

This is an extremely talented band, and even though the hall was barely half full when they played their set, they were absolutely electrifying once they had all instuments hooked up and working.  Vocalist/keyboardist Chris Wall, a true budding superstar, leads the band on keyboard in most numbers, picking up his Fender Telecaster only a couple of times per set and although heaven knows a keyboard-driven rock band can become a little precious at times, Air Traffic staves off that possibility with hard work from Pritchard, Jim Maddock on bass and David Jordan on drums.  

The climax of the set came via a little tune called “No More Running Away” in which the band shows its versatility by turning into a drum corp featuring Pritchard and Maddock beating floor toms with feverish intensity throughout most of the song.  The band saved its biggest hits for last, finishing up with an amazing new song, apparently entitled “Take Hands,” then “Charlotte” and “Shooting Star” to end the set.  This band deserves all the attention it gets on this tour, but there are a lot of Air Traffic fans under 21 (my kids among them) so I told the band after the concert that they should utilize an all-ages venue next time, and they will seell a lot more tickets.  They agreed and said they would be back soon (hopefully next time they will also have more merch than their album–guys, get a clue: you get a lot of money from merch).  They have four more dates with Elbow, including:

(Heads up Supergenius and Susan, they’re coming your way)  Then they kick off their own tour beginning at Spaceland in L.A. and ending at the Rheinkultur Festival in Germany in July.  Go see them!

Elbow hit the stage to a significantly larger crowd after only a short delay and immediately grabbed attention with “Starlings” featuring nearly the entire band on trumpet.  There’s nothing like several people hitting a high, sustained trumpet blast a few feet away from you to get a show started right.  That led into the “Mirrorball” which showcased keyboardist (and producer) Craig Potter’s talents and, you guessed it, the obligatory mirrorball throwing sparkles of light dancing about the room.  The band were also supported by a couple of lovely backup singers/dancers who played violin on several of the numbers from the bands new release The Seldom Seen Kid which, oddly, the band had no copies of.  Lead vocalist, guitarist, raconteur and all-around hale-fellow-well-met Guy Garvey kept things entertaining during song changes by constantly asking the audience how they were doing and chatting about the music, the band members and life in general (BTW, if you are the woman in the mezzanine who kept screaming “Mexican Standoff!” at every opportunity, please, please, do us all a favor and seek professional help).  Garvey’s Fender Stratocaster, which he plays like he’s tuning a fiddle, has a very unique effect (sort of like a swarm of angry bumble bees trapped in a drainpipe) but his voice is one of the most compelling in rock music today and his stage presence is always engaging and, at times, hilarious.  Garvey credited his friend Richard with this joke:

I went to my doctor and he told me I had to stop masturbating. I said, “Why doc? It’s brilliant, I love it, why do I have to stop?” The doctor looked at me kind of funny and said, “Because I’m trying to examine you.”

One of the major highlights of the evening was, of course, “Grounds for Divorce” in which Garvey helpfully warns that he’s “been working on a cocktail called ‘Grounds for Divorce,’” and which features incredible guitar and bass work by stunning guitarist Mark Potter and bassist Pete Turner.  Garvey bangs on a pipe throughout and Richard Jupp, who was brilliant on drums the entire night, holds the whole thing together.  At the end of the night, Garvey led into “One Day Like This” by asking the audience to sing along to its outro.  It really gives you a warm feeling to hear a room full of people belting out: “Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year will see me right!”

But that was nothing compared to what came next.  Garvey informed the audience that, in order to get an encore, we would have to perform a song of our own choosing, but said we couldn’t choose any Elbow songs and “no f***ing Oasis.”  He asked for suggestions:  “It’s A Small World?”  “Never heard of it.”  “Row Row Row Your Boat?”  “Too easy.”  “Back in Black?”  “Only if this were Australia, that’s their national anthem isn’t it?”  “Killing Me Softly?”  “They did that in New York.” (!?)  Finally, one of the backup singers suggested “Lean On Me,” which was acceptable.  So then, believe it or not, the audience serenaded the band with “Lean On Me” in order to get an encore.  Yes, this band is well-loved. 

[Epilogue:  Earlier in the day, my wife Robin encountered Garvey on a shopping spree in her store.  She helped him pick out an outfit for his girlfriend who Garvey described as "a beautiful redhead with pale skin, piercing blue eyes and large breasts."  According to Robin, he is just as genuine and fun in real life as he is onstage.]