I've not really been on here for a while so apologies if this isn't where it goes anyway, was bored and so decided to write a review of last night's Elbow gig

Elbow have been an ever present in my love of music, my first gig was to see them in 2001 when they toured their debut album, Asleep in the Back, and I fell in love hook, line and sinker. I felt giddy anyway as my first real crush, a girl I still know but no longer see as much, had got me onto the guest list, at the age of 14 and at my first gig this felt special - I was cool, I was not paying for my ticket, I was a guest of the band. Since then, after having been on a few guest lists, I realise it's not as impressive as it seemed but to me, an uncool music fan this felt good. We arrived early as I had been dropped off from my other great love and ever present - Everton and so had a while to hang about, I had a beer and a cigarette, and I felt rock 'n' roll. The band shuffled onto stage and proceeded to break my heart and mend it back again because they could - I hadn't felt everything they sang about by this point, but I knew when i did these were the songs that would soundtrack it - even if just in my head.
Seven years later and I have changed, I moved out of Manchester to go to university, I found the girl that I first ever felt properly in love with, that influenced what I did and how I did it, and I felt the utter devastation that can only come from rejection by the girl who made your heat soar - Elbow released songs that seemed targeted right at me - explaining what I felt and what I couldn't express. I felt homesick for Manchester - they released Station Approach and they placed everything into that song, 'Coming home I feel like I, designed these buildings I walked by' - and whats more it was actually about the station I pull up in.
Things have changed in these times as well as me, even the Academy, where I saw them first has had a face lift - the building I used to get drunk in and next to when I was much too young, the building I have kissed girls and been slapped by girls, things change, Elbow change but they are still there.
Shuffling into the Academy, I felt pangs of nostalgia for when it used to be smoky, dirty and greasy but I still held that same anticipation that comes before a gig such as this. They burst onto stage with 'Starlings' the trumpets piercing the venue and the announcing the arrival of a truly important band. For that is what Elbow are, important - there are bands that have good songs, rock out with your cock out songs, political songs, emotional songs but Elbow are one of those once in a lifetime bands, you hear every word and every tune and you scream, 'That's me, I felt that' whether it's heartbreak or love, pissed off or elated, they've felt it too and then create a few new emotions whilst they're at it - hearing the start of Newborn sung perfectly by a crowd of 1000 adoring, unaccompanied Mancunians can't be bettered, it was beautiful, it was haunting it was perfect. When they finished the set before the encore (as Guy Garvey said, 'just play the game, we all know we've got another 3 songs,') with 'One day like this a year'd see me right' you knew what he meant. Drinking in The Oyster Bar with the sunshine beating down on Manchester or standing there witnessing this.
Elbow have grown up, I have grown up, Manchester has grown up, everyone has grown up and sometimes you'd rather they didn't - if only you could stand in that moment for ever but you can't - then you get the reassurance that, 'we still believe in love so fuck you' and you know that you'll be alright. Things change, things stay the same, and Elbow will soundtrack it perfectly because that's their role in my life and in the life of everyone touched by them. They put it best themselves:

I leaned on you today
I regularly hurt but never say
I nearly wore the window through
Where was air sea rescue?
The cavalry with tea and sympathy
You were there
Puncture repair
I leaned on you today
I regularly hurt but never say
You patched me up and sent me on my way