Chicago and Aftershow

Last night's Elbow show was utterly amazing. Of course, the setlist was no surprise but every performance was a gem. After the show, there was a party held in the Foundation Room which was free to get into. There was a DJ playing tunes and everyone milling around wondering if the band would show up. After being whisked quickly into a private area, Guy, Mark, Craig, and Richard came into the Foundation Room. They didn't get far into the room but they were all lovely. My wife and I decided to be in the moment and not ask for any pictures with them. I asked Guy for a hug, and someone he knew said to him as he put his pint down, "Are you giving out hugs now?" Guy replied, "not yet" and turned to me and embraced me like an old friend. It was amazing. He was so kind. During the concert, right before "Real Life" my wife blew Guy a kiss and he responded in kind. After he hugged me, I said, "You blew my wife a kiss during Real Life" and very charmingly, he replied, "Of course I did" and I turned to introduce her. Since she's short, Guy leaned in towards her and gave her a kiss on the cheek and she kissed his "smoothly bearded face" as she put it. We both thanked him profusely for coming to Chicago and how we really enjoyed their music. I said to him, "I really love the song, The Take Off and Landing of Everything" and that they should play it. He replied, "I have to relearn the words". I quickly replied, "I'll help you." and he replied, "That would be great" and gave me a smile. We let others have their moment and we turned to leave. For some reason, I just wanted shake Richard's hand. I caught his eye, and extended my hand, saying, "I don't mean to interrupt your conversation but I just wanted to thank you for coming to see us in Chicago." He broke into a big smile and said, "Well, isn't that nice?". As we turned to go, I brushed into Craig and basically said the same thing with the same lovely reaction.

There were a lot of English and Scottish ex-pats there and the refreshing thing was that no one mobbed any of them. Everyone was just happy. Everyone seemed to let everyone else have their moment with each of them.

I would post pictures but, and I can't underline this enough, as I mentioned, we stayed in the moment and it just felt so good to not be busy recording the moment.

That is crazy, you are so lucky.

Interesting about TTOaLoE, I guess that's why we haven't been hearing it!

Solid point about living in the moment. Often you can forget what it was like actually living the experience and only be able to recall it from the point of view of a camera. My interaction (singing with Guy at one of the shows) is yet to sink in, nearly 2 months later, because I instantly searched the video on YouTube as opposed to remembering what I was doing and thinking and feeling in the moment.

Glad you had a great time!

Nice one! Must've been such a trip to be able to say hi and have some time with the Elboys! Lucky you!

I actually made it a point not to take pictures when I saw the band in D.C. I did allow myself a handful of shots on my phone during one song, but after that I just put it away and savored the show. I usually do try to get pics, but they distract me from what's happening right then and there, and they rarely come out well for me in any case! So I think it makes perfect sense that you focused on being in the moment when you met them. I'm sure you'll always remember it anyway!

hey salparadise, that's awesome.

i was at the chicago show and went to the afterparty very briefly. i just could not hack the sheer amount of weird investment banker-types hanging out at the bar. and i had no idea if the band would show up, so i left early. duh.

the show itself was amazing. i managed to get up front, which was lovely. hadn't seen them since 2006; quite a different thing going on now! but i had a great time and haven't really had a show-going experience quite as moving in forever.