Manchester’s Elbow played a sold out show at Terminal 5 in New York, on September 25, 2011. Before you read on, if you don’t know Elbow’s music, you are doing your ears a great disservice. Their 2008 album “The Seldom Seen Kid” is a masterpiece, according2g and it ranks up there with my favorite albums of all time. It’s been about 2 years since Elbow played in New York and I forgot how funny lead singer Guy Garvey is. In between songs, he talks to the crowd, flirts with some of the pretty ladies in the front and tells funny anecdotes. At the end of the show, he expressed his gratitude for getting the opportunity to play for us and even went so far as calling the 5,000 capacity venue a bunch of “lovely fuckers.” Classic! It was quite an emotional roller coaster for me because at times I was laughing and at times I was crying. I just happen to think that so many of their songs are so beautiful – almost too beautiful to be real – and hearing them live was a little to heavy for my emotions to take.
Elbow
Aside from “Puncture Repair” and “Great Expectations” from their 2005 album “Leaders of the Free World,” Elbow stuck to playing songs off “The Seldom Seen Kid” and their latest album “Build a Rocket Boys!” From “The Seldom Seen Kid,” they played “Starlings,” “The Bones Of You,” “Mirrorball,” “Grounds For Divorce,” “Weather To Fly,” “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver,” and “One Day Like This,” which was the epic final song of the night. A video will be coming soon, so stick around for that. From “Build A Rocket Boys!” they played “The Birds” “Lippy Kids,” “Neat Little Rows,” “The Night Will Always Win,” “The River” and “Open Arms.” The band sounds fantastic, Guy Garvey’s voice sounds as great as it does on the albums and Garvey is so animated on stage. He induced many sing-a-longs, arm waves from side to side and got the crowd to throw their hands in the air many times. I am already having Elbow withdrawal and I hope they come back soon because they are absolutely sensational. Thanks Elbow for an epic night!
This video is unlisted because the record labels have suddenly decided that youtube videos are killing the music business. Since some of those people read this site, let me tell you that repackaging an album that all the fans already bought with one new song on it; the incompetent record execs who know nothing about music and are concerned only with the bottom line, incompetent PR people who give out all the perks to the “major websites” and then write terrible or no content on the event; charging 10 dollars for digital files that cost you pennies or less to upload and not getting in bed with technology before you got out-geeked is what killed the music business.
With that being said, here’s an amazing performance by the always amazing Lenny Kravitz, that you can only see here on According2g.com! Thanks for your patronage. When we say exclusive on this site, we actually know the definition of the word, so we mean it!
August 31, 2011. “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” Terminal 5. New York. Lenny!
I don’t even know where to begin. I will start with saying that I’ve been a fan of Lenny Kravitz since his debut album “Let Love Rule” came out in 1989. Over the years, every time he released a new album, I listened to it on repeat for months. His music has meant so much to my life and I’ve always appreciated his positive lyrics and his seamless mixture of funk, rock and soul. I’ve had many milestones in my life with Lenny providing the soundtrack. For example, I remember leaving my college university for the last time while listening to the new (at that time) song “Fly Away” and it’s memories like this that I’ve held onto even though I am not the most sentimental person. I’ve seen him in concert many times since then Lenny Kravitz has also provided me one of the most memorable concert experiences I’ve ever had. I met him in Los Angeles when his album “Circus” was new. I asked Lenny before that concert if he ever played the album track “The Resurrection” because it was my favorite song on the album. Lenny advised that they didn’t really play it too often and that night, he opened the show with that song! I’ve been grateful about that moment 15 years on.
It’s been about a decade since I’ve met Lenny Kravitz and in that time, he went from being an indie star to an international rock star. I was beyond happy to see that Lenny is still really cool. To be perfectly honest, when Lenny was standing inches from me, all these great memories (and many more that are not mentioned here) came flooding into my head all at once and as you can see from the look on my face, it was a combination of ecstasy, gratefulness and disbelief. I cannot thank Lenny enough, both for this photo as well as all the joy he’s brought to my life. I know I speak on behalf of Lenny’s faithful legion of fans, so THANKS AGAIN LENNY!
The only thing better than Lenny Kravitz releasing a new album this week – “Black and White America” – is Lenny Kravitz releasing a new album this week AND playing a free show at New York’s Terminal 5 on August 31, 2011 to celebrate. The show was part of the Samsung Summer Krush concert series and it rocked! Lenny Kravitz looks and sounds amazing. He does not look like he’s aged a day since his career began in the late 80s and his voice sounds as great as ever. I’ve seen Lenny in concert a lot and I don’t think you can really leave one of his shows disappointed. His fans are great as they really seem to take the words “Let Love Rule” to heart and everyone is cool so it makes the concert-going experience even better. I ran into Grammy-nominated art director, my “Ultimate Prince” partner in crime and the man responsible for directing the exclusive videos that are posted on Lenny’s official site, Mathieu Bitton, at the concert and it looks like a lot of great footage will be gained on Lenny Kravitz’ upcoming European tour.
Lenny
Lenny opened the show with my favorite track off “Black and White America,” the extremely funky “Come On Get It.” The hits kept on coming after that with “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” and “Mr. Cab Driver.” Before the end of the night, “American Woman,” “Fly Away” and “Are You Gonna Go My Way” were played and the audience lost their minds! No show would be complete without Lenny spreading the love during “Let Love Rule” as the audience participated in a chills inducing sing-a-long and Lenny Kravitz also walked into the crowd. That ruled!
I can’t believe a week has passed since seeing Interpol in concert (for my 4th time in a year…. lucky me!) The band raised money for the Sickday Safety Net organization and I’d appreciate if you’d take a look at their site and donate if you can. Sickday helps out New York’s creative community that are without health insurance.
The final song Interpol performed on May 8, 2011 at Terminal 5 in New York was “Not Even Jail.” It features one of my favorite Interpol lyrics – “you’re making people’s lives feel less private.” And it goes something like this….
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