Gig played on 14/07/06

The problem with Somerset House is that it's just so damn civilised. As you approach the bar, surrounded by the epic, ornate walls of this quite tremendous building, it comes as something of a surprise that you're not offered a pint of strawberries. This is rock'n'roll served through a rather tasteful, skewed filter, the kind more readily associated with Wimbledon or some such British self-satisfaction. Perhaps as worryingly, we're here to see a band who are more than capable of rage and confrontation but are not about to get angry tonight. It's not looking good.

So it proves for the first 30 minutes or so of Elbow's show. Three albums in and now fully embraced as a collection of sublime, smart Northern souls who can more than match their peers for invention, soul and size, Elbow will clearly never do a Coldplay, in commercial terms. They're also too affable to truly grab you by the throat, like Radiohead. So, almost a year since the release of the pretty much faultless "Leaders Of The Free World", here the ire is rather tasteful. Indeed, esteemed frontman Guy Garvey chooses to stick to the programme, cracking jokes and inviting the audience to engage in an enormous collective sigh, telling us it's like "massive f*ck off yoga".

As we pursue something more than a group chill in the grounds of a London palace, certain early moments do, of course, fly. Elbow blaze through the Kong sized "Station Approach" with intent, before a string of tracks cast a mild spell with the clout and depth of their emotions, rather than the dull daylight intensity of the show. "Great Expectations", "Switching Off" and "Fugitive Motel" are the kind of deep blue, aboundingly sad anthems that Elbow conjure at the spark of a match. The band then run through two new tracks, the first a sparse, standard piano eulogy, before Garvey is armed with drum toms and sticks. What follows is a white light, tribal psych-out which not only ratchets-up the atmosphere but suggests we're not here just to look pleased with ourselves and admire the view.

As darkness descends, Elbow truly set upon us, balancing the jubilant, explosive sonic boom of "Forget Myself" with the demolished "Scattered Black And Whites", Garvey recalling "you the only sense, the world has ever meant". Suddenly it seems we might have a memorable gig on our hands, as the hypnotic organ drone and enveloping drum clusters of "Anyday Now" are followed by what remains perhaps the band's finest moment. With the closing "Newborn", as Mark Potter's spiralling guitar line finally snaps and collides with Garvey's untamed roar, we are fully lifted skywards and out of the confines of this beautiful but rather confusing location.

Your Yahoo! Music correspondent is forced to conclude that while you can take the boy out of the rock, you can't take the rock out of the boy.

by Ben Gilbert