come out and play

OK, so before the Elbow show at Hiro Ballroom last night. I went to this place called Pop Burger on 9th Avenue. Food was good, a little pricey, but good. They had these great lobster nachos, chicken spring rolls and mini-burgers. Anyhow, they were playing the new Warriors DVD. I loved that movie when I was a little kid. I wanted to be Swan, and be in a gang. Of course, I lived in suburban New Jersey, and well, there weren't very many opportunities to be in gangs. So, I think they added some weird still animation to the movie. It was kind of weird, but kind of cool. At first, I thought I was watching a preview for the video game. I've heard the new directors cut, has all these comic book transitions, lots of cool interviews and deleted scenes. I'm also very interested in checking out the new videogame adaptation.

On to the Elbow show. The Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime hotel is actually a pretty good venue to see a show. The only other show I've seen there was Beck, and for both, the sound was fairly good. This was also my first time seeing Elbow, despite being a long-time fan. The Manchester group kicked it off with Ribcage from their 2nd album, Cast Of Thousands. They played a good amount of songs from all three of their albums. Sounding great playing new songs and old alike. Highlights included Fugitive Motel, Switching Off, Red, Powder Blue, Forget Myself, and Leaders of the Free World, plus just about every other song. Singer Guy Garvey's gritty falsetto sounded perfect laid gently over the lush arrangements and occasional bursts of noise. They had a few technical difficulties, mostly coming at the expense of one of the finer songs, Newborn, which never really was completed, despite two valiant attempts.

Though they played their only US show of 2005 last night at Hiro Ballroom, they promised a return to New York in 2006, with hopefully a much bigger tour and functioning equipment. The new album Leaders of the Free World will be released stateside in February 2006. During the recording of the album, the band brought in the Soup Collective to document the making and it will accompany the album as a special DVD add on.