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Belle And Sebastian

25th September 2005 - The Barbican Theatre, London, U.K.
Went to this superb concert last night, one of a series of whole-album retrospective concerts organised by ATP (http://www.atpfestival.com/events/line_up.php?event=18]link[/URL] ). Belle and Sebastian played the whole of their 'classic' 1996 album, 'If You're Feeling Sinister'... supported by Broadcast (similar to Stereolab), B&S played 4-5 songs to 'warm up' before launching into a complete, in sequence rendition of 'Sinister' from beginning to end, and then closed the gig with a further 4-5 'crowd-pleasers', to round off a thoroughly stunning concert.
Having never seen B&S live before, I was amazed at how polished their live sound is. Having it on good authority that this wasn't always the case (even lead guitarist Stevie Jackson made a reference to their 'shambolic' past on stage), they now sound as tight as they do on record.
To a hushed, expectant and an almost awed audience, Stuart Murdoch (songwriter and lead vocalist) launched into the unaccompanied opening strains of 'The Stars of Track and Field', soon to be joined by the rest of the band, then followed by my personal favourite B&S track of them all, 'Seeing Other People'. Ironically, probably because I was looking forward to hearing it so much, it didn't quite hit the spot as well as some other tracks in the evening, possibly due to the technical difficulty involved in playing the fast piano refrain and singing at the same time. But the next two tracks, 'Me And The Major' and 'Like Dylan In The Movies' both received rapturous applause (well, the whole concert did), but for me, LDITM was a revelation. I had never really appreciated the subtely/beauty of Stevie Jackson's harmony vocals, which were quite brilliant the whole evening. The next two tracks have always kind of passed me by on the CD, although are firm favourites with the crowd (apparently), 'The Fox In The Snow' and 'Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying'. Next up, the title track. The fade-guitar intro, coupled with the almost certainly deliberate chattering of the crowd was unbelievably close to the original (the original has the sound of kids playing and chattering over the start of it). One of B&S best-ever lyrics (in my opinion, although it's hard to single any out really), this song seems to sum up alot of what B&S are about. "She was into S&M and Bible studies/Not everyones cup of tea..." and "But if you are feeling sinister/Go off and see a minister/Hell try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever"
The remaining songs, 'Mayfly' and 'The Boy Done Wrong Again' were also well-done, but over-shadowed somewhat by the expectation of 'Judy And The Dream Of Horses', another of my favourite songs. Inviting a crowd of people who had been dancing to take to the stage, Murdoch managed to turn the finale of the album into a celebration, with the rest of the crowd also soon up on their feet, as a barrage of paper aeroplanes (
After a massive standing ovation and a sincere hope that they'd go on to play something else rather than just end the concert there, B&S went on to play several of their most popular tunes, including their last single 'I'm A Cuckoo' (from 'Dear Catastophe Waitress', 2004) and the essential 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' (from 'The Boy With The Arab Strap', 1998) (incidentally, 'The Arab Strap' were another Scottish group around in the late 90's, so the lyric "You were laid on your back with the boy from the Arab Strap" is self-explanatory).
At one point, there were as many as 12 musicians on stage, Murdoch played piano, guitars, bass, lead and harmony vocals, almost flawlessly (he did forget some lyrics, including the very first lines of the gig!, but with some helpful prompting by other band members, he got away with it
TM
Weblinks:
http://www.belleandsebastian.com/home.php
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?...EA11608D9CAE95CFED5764C40&sql=10:v7n20r2at48z