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11-6-03 // 12.00 pm summer in winter, winter in springtime NP: Belle & Sebastian - "The Boy With The Arab Strap" Ah, the show last night was totally spot on. Let me wax poetic... First off, went out for Greek pre-show. Olympia really does have the "best gyros in town", though it also takes about 20 minutes after sitting down to get any sort of service whatsoever. Thankfully once you do manage to flag down a waitperson, the food comes out at a speed approximate to the speed of sound. Had actual reserved seats (first row!) in the balcony so we there was no need to get to the Pageant early. Instead, Erin and I took our time eating and then had a drink at the Halo (bar attached to venue). They served me, oddly enough, one of the best pints of Guinness I've had in years. It was extra creamy and yet also full of bite, almost like extra stout as opposed to the fairly smooth smokiness that the draught usually has. Anyway, I digress. I'm pretty sure there was a girl wearing a cheerleader's uniform top sitting near us, which was sort of weird, and there was the requisite hipster drinking a can of Pabst (again, hipsters, wise up! Even if you're drinking shitty beer, there are far better shitty beers out there! Though I know, I know, the point is "irony" or whatever...) Opening act was something called Rasputina, which all I could remember about was that they were supposed to be vaguely gothy and "dark" sounding. It turns out they're two women playing cellos, one of whom was wearing what looked like frilly pirate underwear. The other had one some sort of Victorian dress and had hair that looked like Medusa's, just sans snakes. Oh, and the drummer appeared to be a homeless man. In any case, their music was very much not my cup of tea, though they weren't bad per se. I've seen far worse opening acts, though I've also seen many better ones. Oh, and I suppose they do get a few points for playing a minor-key, cello-heavy cover of Heart's 'Barracuda'. Anyway, we also utilized this time to visit the merch stand, where Erin grabbed a neat shirt and I snagged a tour poster for the study. OK, on to the main attraction. First of all, the B&S stage setup is enormous. Granted there are like 7 full band members, and about 5 additional touring musicians. So there were keyboars and violins and trumpets and guitars and drums and basses everywhere. The band played a mostly "up" set, which I believe was influenced by Stuart Murdoch saying a few songs in "you guys seem like you're closer to the weekend than to Monday, so we're going to try to reflect that tonight". Anyway, the setlist drew heavily from "Dear Catastrophe Waitress", which was fine by me as I've come to really rate it as an album. Yeah, the production is laid on a bit thick, but at the same time, the songs themselves are much bouncier, much more indebted to northern soul and '60s pop than to quiet, strummed indie rock. The material worked wonderfully live -- the set was very energetic and much of the crowd was dancing about, definitely not what I expected. I can't remember the precise order of the setlist, but here are the songs I remember them playing, in roughly the correct chronology: [instrumental trumptey intro thing] I've probably left something out, but oh well. As you can see, there was only one song each from "Tigermilk", "If You're Feeling Sinister", and "Fold Your Hands Child...", and two from "The Boy With The Arab Strap". The rest of the tunes were standalone singles, b-sides, new songs, or from the new record. I think that irritated Erin a bit (not to mention some of the rest of the crowd), but for the most part everyone seemed happy. Perhaps I was extra pleased since of the "old" material, they played several of my favorites (Women's Realm *and* Dirty Dream #2!). No sight of I'm A Cuckoo, though...sad. Oh, and I have to mention that guitarist Stevie Jackson was absolutely fantastic. He's almost as deserving as Stu. Murdoch of being a frontman, and despite the fact that I've always sort of glossed over 'em, his songs are great. He's a nice '60s/'70s pop/soul counterpoint to the sort of stuff Murdoch usually writes. Gives the band more depth and breadth. So yes, great night, great company, and great show. I haven't had that much pure fun at a concert for a while. OK, enough of this for now, I wrote most of this some hours ago, before I went and did a bunch of work, and now it's lunchtime.
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