Elbow/Pete Yorn (First Avenue, Minneapolis – 4/15/02 – 9:45 p.m. All ages)

Elbow

Official Website: www.elbow.co.uk

Guy Garvey/vocals
Richard Jupp/drums
Craig Potter/organ, keyboards
Mark Potter (Pott)/guitar
Pete Turner/bass

It was hotter than Hell for the 15th of April in Minneapolis. Strange as it may seem, 91 is not normal for Minnesota in April. This was not lost on Guy Garvey, lead singer of the onetime Bury, England, now Manchester band Elbow, who wryly commented on the heat and suggested it wasn’t mere coincidence. It’s possible he was right, for immediately upon launching into their set, Elbow did much to help heat up an already packed and warm First Avenue on Monday night.

This was Elbow’s first visit to Minnesota.

A few minutes into their first song, “Any Day Now,” and the opening song on their debut album, “Asleep in the Back” (V2 2001), it was apparent that things were going to go very well that night. It’s hard to say what level of familiarity the crowd had with Elbow’s music before this show, but as with most opening acts supporting locally bigger name bands, you can only assume that many people had not heard of them at all. A man immediately to my right commented, “They’ll win this crowd over yet,” which was an understatement. And the friend that I was with admitted that although she didn’t know what to make of their album on first hearing, she liked this. (Apparently, I forgot to tell my friend that “Asleep in the Back” is the kind of album you must listen to several times before you can start appreciating it.)

On this leg of their US tour with once New Jersey, now LA-based singer/songwriter Pete Yorn, Welsh drummer Owen Rossiter (a.k.a. Owen If) from the Stereo MCs, was filling in for regular Elbow drummer Richard Jupp, whose girlfriend was having a baby in Manchester. Rossiter and bassist Pete Turner provided a steady, somewhat industrial, chilling backbeat throughout the evening. A friend of the band, an accomplished filmmaker, provided an additional dimension of multimedia to the show, showing a combination of pre-made films pertinent to each song and real-time live shots of the band that were almost hypnotically faded in and out. The video was tastefully applied and not nearly as pretentious as I’d guess this effect must have been in the early days of the Velvet Underground when they did a similar thing.

The fact that the multimedia was a nice augmentation by no means suggests this show didn’t stand by itself musically. Elbow is a very visually evocative band. For me, their music conjures up vague visuals of dark and rainy places I’ve never even been, ironically perhaps of the Manchester moors I used to envision when relentlessly listening to the Smiths back in 1983. (I’m not the first reviewer to make a Morrisey-Garvey comparison.) For the audio-visual setup to work properly (in other words, not to place the drummer at the back, which would have been behind the screen), the band was set up unconventionally with the Rossiter sitting all the way on stage left. Next to him was guitarist Mark Potter (Pott), Guy Garvey sensibly placed in the middle, looking much like a scruffy Russell Crowe, Pete Turner on bass, and Craig Potter (Mark’s younger brother) on keyboards and organ at stage right.

After some cheerful banter, Garvey and company launched into “Red,” written by Bassist Pete Turner. Red is one of the strongest songs on “Asleep in the Back” and a favorite of many. However, for me, and perhaps others, “Newborn” was a highlight. “Newborn’s” opening lyrics strike me as one of the most awesome first lines in a pop song I’ve ever heard. Who would think a song beginning

“I’ll be the corpse in your bathtub / Useless” (http://www.elbow.co.uk/first_03_lyrics.asp) would be a powerful love song. But it most definitely is. I wondered if the rocking second half of this song would be as powerful live as it is on the album, and it was. In some ways, it’s almost like two great songs spliced together, thematically related but charged with different musical energy.

I didn’t take notes and can’t comment on the sequence of the entire set, but suffice it to say it ended too soon! I understand the remainder of the US tour is sold out, but if this review reaches you and you have a chance to see this show, you will not be disappointed! And I was very excited to hear from Mark Potter that the band would be not only at Glastonbury (June 28th-30th) but also at V2002 (August 17th and 18th) in England this summer. I believe they will be one of the acts to see this year as word spreads.