Words: Kim    Photos: Derek

[A note on this post. What follows is a kind of annotated description of the performance. We did not record the show. Instead, dialogue is reconstructed from notes hastily scribbled in the dark, written as the note-taker was under the spell of our magician-conductor, Guy Garvey. So quotations aren’t perfect.]

It’s an orchestral opening – which, we would later see, perfectly set the stage for all that followed. We would also learn that the orchestral piece was by Joe Duddell, the British conductor/composer who arranged – and conducted – elbow’s songs for the legendary (Google it!) show by elbow and the Hallé at The Bridgewater Hall for the 2009 Manchester International Festival.

The band enters; and Guy Garvey, our host and personal conductor for the evening, toasts the audience. This, too, would have significance.

“the birds” (rocket boys!)

 The toast: it’s the 10^th anniversary of elbow’s first performance at the 9:30 Club: “Still the best club in America.” (Appreciative cheers of agreement from the audience. We know he’s not just blowing smoke here.)  For those of us not fortunate enough to be there back in 2001, a quick look at the band’s discography reveals that this was the year elbow’s first studio album, Asleep in the Back, was released. No wonder Garvey remembers it. Milestones.

“The Bones of You” (SSK)

“I can work ‘til I break but I love the bones of you. That I will never escape.”

 [One of us believes down to her bones that, if only she could write a song as perfect as this one, she could die content, knowing that she had increased the beauty of the universe.]

We now learn that the opening orchestral piece was by Duddell, who appears to be in the audience. Meanwhile, Garvey has himself become a kind of conductor. A front-man-conductor. And we, it seems, are his orchestra. He warms up by leaning toward the audience, pointing to us, one by one, smiling broadly as he points, singing. Oh look – he’s pointing at us now!