Belle & Sebastian / Music for Your Heart - Live 2026.03.06 Metropol, Berlin, Germany

This was night 2 of 2; I won’t repeat what I’ve already described from the first. This time I wanted to be on the floor, so I showed up earlier. Music for Your Heart again opened and played practically the same set. If she deviated at all, I didn’t notice; the songs again all sounded the same. Raymond McGinley again essentially just doubled her parts with restrained flourishes.

Belle & Sebastian came out this time to a video of If You’re Feeling Sinister cover star Ciara MacLaverty describing her interactions with the band as it formed. Now, this is one of my all-time favorite albums; I once made a tentative top-ten list in 2008 and this was on it. It still would be. Seeing the whole thing on stage was practically transcendent. Or well, it would’ve been if my perfect spot on the floor hadn’t been so encroached upon that I was deeply physically uncomfortable the whole time. I know I’m the weird one, but I don’t understand how anyone can be comfortable in such a densely packed crowd! I did my best not to let it distract me, but I wasn’t able to let the music flow through my body the way I wanted.

[Belle & Sebastian.]

It also seemed like the band was just a bit loose. It was still a great performance, but it wasn’t as tight as the Tigermilk performance, and they didn’t really embellish it or change it up much. I mean, with such a beloved album, I can understand why they didn’t. I wouldn’t have wanted them to. Sarah’s violin felt more at home (it was her first work with the band) and she again sang Isobel’s parts wonderfully. I was disappointed, though, that she played the stylophone solo from “Mayfly” on her synth, but I can forgive that. I particularly enjoyed Chris Geddes’s keyboard parts and the unnamed cellist and trumpeter’s performances. The whole crowd was singing along and it was quite a collective experience, even despite my physical distress. “Fox in the Snow” hit me particularly hard, as it always does, but the highlight was at the end of “Judy and the Dream of Horses”. Just like with the false ending of “Mayfly”, the band picked right back up after the end and went all-out for a big, extended jam. Stuart put on a horse head and danced around while everyone rocked out. It was bizarre and wonderful.

At that point I had to bail from my position and I ended up in the back where the view was worse and I could actually move around a bit. The second set was less hit-filled than the previous night, but I appreciated that the only repeat was “The Boy with the Arab Strap”. This time they drew it out while Stuart ad-libbed, leaned down to the crowd, and asked “the original catastrophe waitress” Alexandra Klobouk (cover star of Books EP (2004) and The Life Pursuit (2006)) how she was doing. “Piazza, New York Catcher” was done in the now-standard low-key band arrangement, and during “If You Find Yourself Caught in Love”, Stuart ran through the crowd, including right past me. “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” was the only song from after Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003), and Sarah took Norah Jones’s lead vocal, again quite successfully. “Sleep the Clock Around” and fan request “Lazy Line Painter Jane” were the real highlights. Both were ecstatic rave-ups.

I was so excited about this show that I didn’t put one thought into whether it was a gimmick. But despite my preference for Sinister, I just barely preferred the Tigermilk show. It might’ve just been my sensitivity to the jostling, or that my expectations were even higher for this show, but I think the band performed just a touch better the prior night. It was still excellent regardless. The band seemed cramped on the small stage, but the mix was great, which is quite impressive for a touring band of nine people. I really wish they’d chosen a larger venue; both nights had sold out quickly and the Metropol’s unusual, long shape made the competition for a decent spot even worse. I wish I’d been able to have a less distracted experience, but it was worth it anyway.

[Stuart with the horse head.]

Set 1 (If You’re Feeling Sinister):
01. The Stars of Track and Field
02. Seeing Other People
03. Me and the Major
04. Like Dylan in the Movies
05. The Fox in the Snow
06. Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying
07. If You’re Feeling Sinister
08. Mayfly
09. The Boy Done Wrong Again
10. Judy and the Dream of Horses

Set 2:
11. Dog on Wheels
12. Chickfactor
13. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John
14. If You Find Yourself Caught in Love
15. Piazza, New York Catcher
16. The Boy with the Arab Strap
17. Sleep the Clock Around

Encore:
18. Lazy Line Painter Jane

Scores:
Music for Your Heart: D-
Belle & Sebastian: A-
If You’re Feeling Sinister: A+

Bonus scores:
The Boy with the Arab Strap: A-
Push Barman to Open Old Wounds: A
Dog on Wheels EP: B
Lazy Line Painter Jane EP: A-
3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light EP: A+
This Is Just a Modern Rock Song EP: A+
“Legal Man” single: A+
“Jonathan David” single: B
“I’m Waking Up to Us” single: B

P.S. Yes, I’m aware I gave the “Legal Man” single just an A back in 2008. I was wrong. The C+ for Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant was correct, though.

P.P.S. Thanks to Alyssa!

Belle & Sebastian / Music for Your Heart - Live 2026.03.05 Metropol, Berlin, Germany

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 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-