It's finally show night, and Elbow performed at Atlanta's Center Stage, with Glasser opening first with an initial song bravely sung a cappella, followed by electronic accompaniment.
I like Glasser's music, a lot, but her stage performance was even better than I had anticipated. Despite all of the electronics and looping and use of repeaters and layering, her voice was authentic and true, and she sang accompanied by the electronica, not subsumed beneath the synthesizers, effects and pedals. (In other words, she doesn't use Auto Tune.)
She pushed all of the right buttons for me, including some tribal-sounding chants, some creative melody and song structure, and great use of a floor tom. She totally validated my decision to hear her and Elbow over all of the other choices this evening.
Of course, all this praise for the opening act is to take nothing away from the headliner, Elbow. The quintet put on an uplifting and joyous set, complete with two violinists, making them a septet for the evening.
Somehow, lead singer Guy Garvey coaxed the audience into singing the faux-Native-American Atlanta Braves rally chant, and then managed to morph the chant into their song Grounds for Divorce.
"Build a rocket, boys!," Mr. Garvey sang during Lippy Kids.
The young woman sitting next to me and my friend Nick during the show claimed she flew all the way from L.A. just to see this one concert. I believe she got her money's worth.
It's a testament to the band that they were able to keep the near-capacity crowd quiet and spellbound during the course of several ballads.
Not that all the songs were ballads. They also performed several rousing, up-tempo numbers to the clapping of the crowd, who also sang along on a great many verses. The audience even sang, "Happy Birthday to Elbow" (with a little bit of prompting from Mr. Garvey) after it was announced that it was the band's 20th anniversary performing together.
For the encore, before performing the inevitable One Day Like This, the band took the stage all playing trumpets, providing a brass overture to the remainder of their set.
It's great to hear a band play with the intelligence and grace that Elbow displays. While I had half-expected them to be morose and moody, they were instead sensitive but joyful, self-deprecating yet confident. I missed seeing Wild Beasts and BOBBY playing across town this evening at the Variety Playhouse, as well as Dale Earnhart, Jr., Jr. at the Drunken Unicorn and Modern English at Smith's Olde Bar, but I believe that between Elbow and Glasser, I saw the best show in town this evening.
More pictures will be posted to the Live Site soon.
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