Guy Garvey strides to the front of the stage and holds a gleaming trumpet aloft triumphantly. He looks like a footballer with a championship cup, an actor with an Oscar - or indeed, a man with the Mercury prize, awarded to his band last month. Elbow's bassist and guitarist, Pete Turner and Mark Potter, raise their own trumpets, and the trio play one long, sharp, declamatory note. Lights blare, almost as bright as the grin on Garvey's face. Elbow have arrived.
As opening moments go, this is fantastically dramatic stuff, and the 16-song set that follows lives up to it thrillingly. The pacing is theatrically perfect, a sequence of crescendos and emotional crashes. They'll play a muted, introspective number like The Stops, lulling the audience into a languorous daze, then immediately follow it with something punchy and compelling - in this case, the industrial grind of Grounds for Divorce. Even individual songs are strikingly arranged: The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver holds its breath each time Craig Potter plays a gorgeous, swooshing chord on the keyboards, while Weather to Fly begins with the quintet huddled together at the side of the stage, sweetly singing a cappella, before returning to their posts to send the song soaring.
Nor are Elbow immune to the cheesy gesture: during Mirrorball, a song about "big moons", a huge disco ball illuminates the room. Better still, One Day Like This is transformed from a sober celebration of hard-won love into a blast of outright euphoria, its uplifting atmosphere heightened by the glitter and balloons scattered over the audience. Just as Garvey's scruffy, bumbling appearance belies his mesmerising dynamism as a frontman - he's constantly leaning into the crowd, or pointing to the sky - so the band's reputation for dourness is shattered by such cheerful showmanship.
This is, effectively, the same show Elbow were playing on tour six months ago: once again, Newborn is dedicated to a pregnant woman in the audience; once again, Garvey insists that the band won't return for an encore unless the crowd chant the word "happy", this time while singing Happy Birthday to one of their violinists. The difference is in Elbow's boosted confidence following the Mercury win. They are riding the crest of a wave - and loving every minute of it.
• At De Montfort Hall, Leicester, on Thursday. Box office: 0116-233 3111. Then touring.