Elbow are a British band. They played a concert at the Arena Wien.

Many years ago, when I was still young enough to go to Festivals (e.g. 2011), I went to the Frequency Festival. One of the main reasons I and puzzledpeaces wanted to go there was that Elbow was playing. And their concert was awesome – and lasted for about 15 minutes because a thunderstorm from hell made it impossible for them to continue.

And then they never played a concert in Austria again (at least not one we heard about) until this August. And even though my strongest Elbow-fangirling has abated and even though their newest album isn’t really the strongest they ever did, it was clear that we still had unfinished business – and finally the chance to finish it.

The concert itself was nice, but I still would have preferred to see the concert way back when. The show just wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, especially the interaction with the audience.

The concert was a little weird, I have to say. For one, it felt like they brought only their slowest songs. I am aware, of course, that Elbow isn’t the kind of band that gets played loudly at parties, but they do have numbers that are a bit more energetic than others. And apart from Grounds for Divorce, there was nothing to be heard of those faster numbers. Which might not be the best choice for a concert. [Or maybe I have just forgotten how slow their stuff actually is?]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpd6lqXnDiQ

Then was also the fact that I have a lively memory of how awesome I thought Guy Garvey’s interaciton with the audience was three years ago, but this time around, not so much. I mean, yes, he did talk with the audience, but there was very little singing with the audience (which might have also been because that particular audience sucked at singing. It is hard to achieve that in a group, but we managed it) and it all felt a bit like his heart wasn’t actually in it. Maybe he was having a bad day.

And the audience was also a little strange. I mean, there was this woman next to me who instagramed the entire time, in front of me was a guy who screamed and jumped and danced – even to songs like Mirrorball. But there was a lot of enthusiasm and people went along with it just fine.

Maybe the problem was more my own mood. It’s of course entirely possible. As I said the new album isn’t so much my thing. Some of my absolute favorites were missing (like Audience with the Pope and Fugitive Motel). And it was really hot at the venue so I felt like I was melting away.

But I don’t want to make it sound like it was a bad concert. It wasn’t. And I was really happy that I went. It might just be that I didn’t just get closure for the concert that was so rudely interrupted in 2011, but for my general love for Elbow. It just really feels like the final stage of a break-up is now over – which might be weird to say, but it fits.