Set list for March '11 tour

I must confess that having read about the lack of old stuff (especially Newborn - I will always say not playing it is a crime... Is it not as much of a mainstay of their set as ODLT and much more long-standing (and exciting )?!) in the setlist, SSK-heaviness and lack of surprises (apart from what they're leaving out ) (such as Bitten at MEN which was excellent), I was disappointed and hope things will change by Liverpool tonight.

But having calmed myself down, few cups of strong coffee later etc etc I guess it will be different from the Elbow gigs I've been used to (inevtiable - huge arena for a start) but I tell myself different isn't necessarily bad and I'm still looking forward to tonight - I'm loving the new album and hope the songs from it will make up for what IMO is sadly missing - and hope I will come away as elated as ever!

Glendarian wrote:

I guess it will be different from the Elbow gigs I've been used to (inevtiable - huge arena for a start) but I tell myself different isn't necessarily bad and I'm still looking forward to tonight - I'm loving the new album and hope the songs from it will make up for what IMO is sadly missing - and hope I will come away as elated as ever!

Glendarian - that was exactly my feeling and about a third of the way through last night I stopped bothering about the lack of songs from the first two albums. It is a different feel for the gig with the bigger production, but still elbow. You'll have a fab time. The friends I went with are saying it was the best gig they'd ever been to.

It's not like they'll *never* play those songs again, ever. They've just not made the cut for this tour. As ChrissyBoy says, they've got 5 fantastic albums to chose from, they must have been playing newborn forever and they've got shiny new songs to play with instead!

hilaryg wrote:

It is a different feel for the gig with the bigger production, but still elbow. You'll have a fab time. The friends I went with are saying it was the best gig they'd ever been to.

My wife did like elbow before, but not in the same obsessive vain as myself. She also thought the gig was totally brilliant, and the best she'd been to.
(even started posting clips of elbow on her facebook!)

Theres loads of songs ive love them to play tommo, but one of my favourites is actually 'Leaders of the free world', have they played that live?

I've only just seen Elbow for the first time and I was so disappointed not to here songs from COT and AATB, but and that is a big but i would not have dropped a single song in the set list at O2, as it served a purpose and it worked for the audience. If you were a band with 5 albums with an audience that varies what would you do? Play songs for the people that see live often or play for people that are seeing for the first time? As a performer myself I firmly believe that you have to play as if that the audience have never seen before. Elbow are a rare breed in the modern music industry in the sense that with the 5 albums they have produced, they cannot go wrong with what they perform. COT has 2 really weak songs on there but artistically i thing it is there best albums

Boney-Crisp wrote:

If you were a band with 5 albums with an audience that varies what would you do? Play songs for the people that see live often or play for people that are seeing for the first time? As a performer myself I firmly believe that you have to play as if that the audience have never seen before. Elbow are a rare breed in the modern music industry in the sense that with the 5 albums they have produced, they cannot go wrong with what they perform.

I think I agree here if I understand you correctly. As a performer myself, I think throwing in one or two songs from the previous three records is good, because it (possibly) gets the new audiences curious in their previous work.

I would love love love it if they whipped out "McGreggor" again at some point.

Hopefully, they would restructure their set for a US tour, where they would be in smaller venues, playing to audiences more familiar with previous - as well as new- material.

Speaking of which, does anyone know if they are planning a US tour? Aside from the Coachella date, there's nothing.

picky bugger 71 wrote:

Speaking of which, does anyone know if they are planning a US tour? Aside from the Coachella date, there's nothing.

The thread for that is just here:
http://elbow.heavenforum.org/t1161-us-tour