Elbow made their live return last night (March 2), warming up for their UK arena tour with an intimate show in Cambridge.
Set to play bigger venues including London‘s O2 Arena later this month, the band decamped to the Cambridge Junction for the gig.
“We played a television show the other night but apart from that this is the first time we’ve been on a stage in a long while,” frontman Guy Garvey told the crowd. “We’re going to play some new songs, some old songs and yes, we are going to fuck them up and forget some words. So it’s a dry run. A trial run. Thanks very much for coming.”
The band included ‘The Birds’, ‘Lippy Kids’, ‘With Love’, ‘Open Arms’ and ‘Neat Little Rows’ from new album ‘Build A Rocket Boys!’, which is released on Monday (March 7), during the two-hour set.
“The whole album is about home and youth and our past,” Garvey explained. “It’s kind of a prodigal son’s return.”
The band also played a series of older songs, including ‘Grounds For Divorce’ and set closer ‘One Day Like This’ which the singer introduced by telling the sold-out audience, “We’ve got 160-odd evenings like this before we make another record, we reckon – thank you so much for coming.”
Elbow played:
‘The Birds’
‘The Bones Of You’
‘Lippy Kids’
‘Mirrorball’
‘With Love’
‘Neat Little Rows’
‘The Night Will Always Win’
‘Great Expectations’
‘Grounds For Divorce’
‘The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver’
‘Puncture Repair’
‘Some Riot’
‘Weather To Fly’
‘Open Arms’
‘Starlings’
‘Station Approach’
‘One Day Like This’
