In 2008 I was lucky enough to visit Vancouver. I stayed in the city for a few days, then travelled around Vancouver Island and up to Whistler, before coming back to Vancouver. When I got back, I didn't have a great deal of money left, so I was just finding low-maintenance things to do.
I was having lunch at the Granville Island market and browsing through the Metro paper (does everywhere have one?), and I noticed that Elbow were playing a gig the following day, apparently in a church. I didn't really know Elbow all that well and probably wouldn't have paid the £15-£20 to see them over here, but figured I'd give them a try anyway. I went to the church to see if they had any tickets, and was told I had to go through Ticketmaster. Oh well, never mind. Later on that day I was in the Tourist Info place and discovered it was also a Ticketmaster outlet, and they had plenty of tickets left for only $15. Win.
This was shortly after The Seldom Seen Kid had come out, and I hadn't heard it yet, nor had most of North America. It turned out the venue really was just a church, as Elbow weren't all that popular in Canada, so I got to hear their new stuff in a tiny venue of about 300 people for less than a tenner. It was absolutely magic, and this is the track which particularly reminds me of the gig. It also never fails to make me smile.
For those interested, there are some clips of that very special gig on this guy's Youtube account.
The other highlight of the evening was queueing round the block beforehand. Some guy pulled up in his car and asked what we were all queueing for, and several people responded by pointing at their elbows.
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