Review: Elbow, Lloyds Amphitheatre – ‘It’s all a bit sentimental at times but hey’

Some of us may have met here before. Elbow on a big outdoor stage in the Bristol summertime. Memories of The Downs in 2017 and this same harbourside setting in 2019.

The weather gods aren’t so kind to us this time but there is enough goodwill towards the returning Mancunians that there is never much doubt that we’ll get through this just fine. The world may have changed in innumerable and not always happy ways since we last met but oh my it’s good to be back here.

The love for the Elbows is not shared by all of course. Muttered sentences starting with dadrock and ending with Snow Patrol are out there. From the humble, indie rock beginnings of their first few albums they are now Platty Jubes mainstays. A musical comfort blanket for the happily mortgaged. You won’t find must truck with any of that tonight though in the church of the everyman preacher Guy Garvey as he leads his masses through their call and response paces.

He really is a strange mixture of things. He has the look of the bar room soak in a shockingly bad shirt who is delighted to get the meat raffle out of the way but is not at all sure he’ll remember all the quiz questions for later. Then he is the highly practiced ringmaster playing the crowd as he has done many a time in this now quite lengthy career. He even finds a young man down the front called Harry at his first gig for the crowd to serenade. The trick is to make the gathered think it’s the first time he’s done this. The engaged faithful who bellow every lyric back at him are all too happy to believe.

Since the last time they have released a couple of albums. They only play one song from the more recent Flying Dream 1. They’ve steered clear of their trademark anthems for this one. A more introspective, minimalist proggy meander this time. Lovely nevertheless. Not the big music for outdoors so only What Am I Without You, a musing on friendship, childhood and family love, gets a spin. The light relief of a taste of Abbey Road after a long journey with Talk Talk.

The early Station Approach slow builds to a stomping climax. Starlings has a louch Velvets like gait to it and one of Garvey’s finest lyrics. The mid-career big selling albums Seldom Seen Kid and Build a Rocket Boys provide the hands in the air, phone aloft moments. The closing run of Grounds for Divorce, Lippy Kids and One Day Like This must be the envy of every stadium rock act. There’s a risk of things getting a bit universally one-paced, symphonic rock around mid-set but there’s always a neat hook or a wry observational lyric to rescue us from any dips.

Of course it’s all a bit sentimental at times but hey I think we can all live with that in these troubled days. It’s a clever mix of art rock moves but with all the mystery removed by the open, gritty charm and all encompassing bonhomie that Garvey effortlessly flies out to every point of even the largest outdoor space. I wonder if next time we see them if they’ll be able to bring some of their more minor key new material to a more intimate setting. Wouldn’t a newly refurbed Bristol Beacon be great for that. In the meantime the joy has been spread and they can head down to Glastonbury with the love of the Bristol faithful in their hearts.

Main photo: Martin Siddorn

Read more: Review: Jungle, Lloyds Amphitheatre – ‘The energy never dulls’

Listen to the Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: