Belle & Sebastian are doing a tour with two nights in most cities visited, in which the first show centers around Tigermilk (1996) and the second on If You’re Feeling Sinister (also 1996). I often find full-album shows gimmicky and pandering (see here or here for egregious examples), but I have also seen a few that were fun. And I mean, these are two great albums! Plus, Belle & Sebastian’s shows never disappoint.
Music for Your Heart, the solo project of Sandra Zettpunkt, was the opening act. She appeared with Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub, who was also involved with her only solo record to date, Turning Marvel (2009). She sang and played electric guitar, and he mostly played similar parts on guitar, adding some embellishments and on rare occasion a lead line. Before a few previous nights on the tour, she said she hadn’t been on stage in 18 years, and this was her first time playing with McGinley. Once a drummer in a variety of 90s Hamburg bands (and briefly a bassist in Parole Trixi), she said she used to play with a drum machine, but it stopped keeping time and she gave up on it. With these credentials, I was surprised by how tame and placid her set was. She was sweet and her plaintive melodies had some charm, but there were no dynamics whatsoever, and audience chatter competed with her for volume. I wanted to like her, but I found myself bored.
Music for Your Heart, the solo project of Sandra Zettpunkt, was the opening act. She appeared with Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub, who was also involved with her only solo record to date, Turning Marvel (2009). She sang and played electric guitar, and he mostly played similar parts on guitar, adding some embellishments and on rare occasion a lead line. Before a few previous nights on the tour, she said she hadn’t been on stage in 18 years, and this was her first time playing with McGinley. Once a drummer in a variety of 90s Hamburg bands (and briefly a bassist in Parole Trixi), she said she used to play with a drum machine, but it stopped keeping time and she gave up on it. With these credentials, I was surprised by how tame and placid her set was. She was sweet and her plaintive melodies had some charm, but there were no dynamics whatsoever, and audience chatter competed with her for volume. I wanted to like her, but I found myself bored.
[Music for Your Heart with Raymond McGinley.]
Belle & Sebastian came out to a recording of Stuart David reciting a description of the recording sessions for Tigermilk, a nice way to include a touch of the founding member who left the band in 2000, and then, as expected, the band played the album straight through. They did a fantastic job of it. “The State I Am In” is such a classic that I was fully into it right from the first note. “Electronic Renaissance” has become such a banger with the higher production values they can afford to give it on stage these days, and I love that five people were playing keyboards (including Stevie Jackson on keytar!), not even counting Stuart Murdoch playing the melodica solo. “I Could Be Dreaming” featured a recording of Isobel Campbell (the other absent founding member; she left in 2002) reciting the lines of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” as heard on the original recording. “We Rule the School” nearly had me crying, it was so beautiful.
[Belle & Sebastian.]
Naturally, the two missing members were sorely missed, as was Mick Cooke, the band’s trumpeter who was initially a guest performer before joining full-time and eventually leaving in 2013 (right before the first time I saw the band live). Of course, in the meantime the band has been joined by bassist/guitarists Bobby Kildea and Dave McGowan (coincidentally also a member of Teenage Fanclub), and Sarah Martin has grown more confident in her voice. She sang Isobel’s parts while also playing an array of instruments (violin, keyboard, flute, shaker, tambourine), despite that she wasn’t present for the first album and only joined in time for Sinister. The band were also augmented by an unnamed cellist/keyboardist/flutist and an unnamed trumpeter, and since I was up in the second balcony, I couldn’t get a good enough view to discern if they were the same people I’d seen before in those roles.
The band left the stage for a break but came back quickly for the advertised second set of favorites. Other than “Simple Things”, they indeed played several of their best singles and regulars, including “The Boy with the Arab Strap” with the standard tradition of inviting a bunch of people to come up and dance on stage. As it drew towards the end, Stuart jumped into the pit and ran around the crowd. For once they even managed to end the song in a fitting way instead of letting die an awkward death. I could complain about predictability in the setlist, but that feels a bit on the nose. For the encore, Stuart made a show of asking for suggestions, ultimately accepting the one from a Polish guy he’d met before the show, but I could see he’d already pulled up the lyrics for “Lord Anthony” on a screen. “Another Sunny Day” might’ve actually been somewhat more spontaneous.
[Audience members on stage for “The Boy with the Arab Strap”. I love that Dave was drinking a beer while playing the keyboard and that a stage hand had to keep Stevie’s mic stand stable while the stage shook from the dancers.]
Naturally, a full-album performance of a great album is well-primed to go over well (as opposed to a newly released album, for example), but it helps even more when the band can bring something extra to it. The songs were all played in similar arrangements to their recordings, but the additional members and better instruments made for a fuller sound and more proficient performance. And it seemed like they were having fun. That makes a big difference. Stuart told some stories and explained a few songs, most notably that “My Wandering Days Are Over” was about the formation of the band and “I Don’t Love Anyone” was born out of a period of frustration and loneliness, but no longer represents how he feels. I still love the hyperbole of it. I guess that’s the whole deal with this band, or at least their early work: I know some people cringe at this sort of earnestness and playfulness, but I find it charming and welcoming. I want to hang out with the characters in the songs. And tomorrow, I will do it again.
Set 1 (Tigermilk):
01. The State I Am In
02. Expectations
03. She’s Losing It
04. You’re Just a Baby
05. Electronic Renaissance
06. I Could Be Dreaming
07. We Rule the School
08. My Wandering Days Are Over
09. I Don’t Love Anyone
10. Mary Jo
Set 2 (“Favorites”):
11. Simple Things
12. I’m a Cuckoo
13. Seymour Stein
14. A Century of Fakers
15. I Want the World to Stop
16. The Boy With the Arab Strap
17. I Didn’t See It Coming
Encore:
18. Lord Anthony
19. Another Sunny Day
Scores:
Music for Your Heart: D+
Belle & Sebastian: A
Tigermilk: A-
