Last time we saw Belle And Sebastian was at the Apollo a few years back. It was awful. They played at such a low volume that they were all but drowned out by the 80% of the audience who seemed to think they were down the pub and stood chatting to their mates, or on their mobiles, for the entire gig. It’s fitting then that, moments after JustHipper and I had finished reminiscing about that night to watch Brakes, tonight’s support, they opened with a song about watching quiet bands, the chorus of which goes “shut the fuck up, I’m trying to watch the band,” or something similar. It was an excellent blast of thrashy punk, and, like many of their songs played tonight, it was very short and to the point. Brakes tackle a number of different styles with confidence and aplomb. There were a couple of country songs, some rock ‘n’ roll, more thrash, slabs of glacial indie rock and covers of Camper van Beethoven (no, not “Take The Skinheads Bowling”) and Jesus And Mary Chain. A couple of songs weighed in at under 7 seconds. Lead singer Eamonn Hamilton has recently left British Sea Power to go full time with Brakes; a decision that, on this showing, has my full support.
Belle And Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch promises us a “laid back” set tonight due to the apparent reluctance of last night’s audience to have anything resembling fun. Fortunately this crowd was much more up for it but it took a few songs for the band to hit their stride. They opened with a couple of tracks from new album “The Life Pursuit” and there was a definite distance between band and audience during these first few numbers, matters not being helped by a lack of continuity as instruments were swapped and tuned between songs. But things warmed up quickly with the title track from “If You’re Feeling Sinister“, a breezy “Mayfly” and a fantastic take of “Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie”, a personal fave of mine. Again, the sound was too quiet; from in front of the speakers we could still hear casual conversations in the audience, and the pissed-up gay couple behind us, singing deliriously into each other’s faces in the style of a four-year-old girl singing nursery rhymes, was more of a diversion than it should have been. Fortunately I was able to tune them out for most of the gig as the band and audience settled into a groove, a laid back groove, as they ran through the likes of “The Loneliness Of The Middle Distance Runner”, “Like Dylan In The Movies” and “Me And The Major” (“If You’re Feeling Sinister” being very well represented on the night). New single “Funny Little Frog” went down well, if not with me then with a vocal majority, but the icing on the cake was the wondrous “The State I Am In”, the song that introduced me to B&S many years ago thanks to John Peel.
With their records becoming increasingly, um, outgoing, I keep expecting the Belle & Sebastian live experience to turn into some kind of big technicolour behemoth with blaring horn sections and big lights and LOUDNESS, but it never does. Instead they opt for subtlety and intimacy, and we can all be grateful for that. But next time, the LOUDNESS, please B&S, turn your amps up to, well, 6. At least.
Posted by
The Ledge on 1st February 2006 at 8:17 pm |
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