Effervescent In Pink

Confessions of a Gigaholic

I decided to post this separately from my entry about Amanda's visit. Seemed only fair to everyone...

(oh, and these aren't my photos - my camera is crap at taking concert shots. These are from 'jordan' at bowlie.com)

Now, I have a theory that your favourite album by any particular artist is usually the first album you listened to by that artist. That something about the oh-so-newness of a great artist becomes a feeling that seeps into the very rhythms and hooks of the album, and you always feel a bit of that everytime you listen to it. Yes, there are some exceptions (Beck's Midnight Vultures for one...) but go through your CD collection and see if this is not generally the case for you...

Which is why I was so excited about this concert - If You're Feeling Sinister was the first Belle and Sebastian album I heard and has remained my favourite B&S album by far. It came out 10 years ago though and they've put out a whack of albums since, so chances of hearing more than two IYFS songs at a regular show would be slim. Plus, the band seemed quite excited about it and promised some different arrangements for this performance.

The show was at the Barbican, usually used for classical and theatre performances; similar to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre if I had to compare - seated venue with stalls, circle, and balcony seats. I showed up (surprisingly) on time and took my seat with a mid-range but excellent view. Then went down to the merch table and bought a wonderfully cheesy 'exclusive memorabilia t-shirt' when I couldn't take any more noise from the terrible opener Broadcast...

But the main act? Oh, it was worth every pence I paid for it - brilliant. They had really taken this show seriously and rehearsed for it, because it was super tight. The sound was bang on, Stuart's voice was very confident, and the new arrangements were not so much different as just better than on the album. And there was even a little lighting for the show (as shown above...).

When they started the first song, I couldn't help but mouth the words and sing along ever so quietly under my breath; a minute later, I looked around and realized everyone else was doing the same. It was really lovely, the audience was very respectful, which I think was nice, as too much hooting and clapping would have gotten old fast. The venue was good for that too, the Barbican seemed to exude a sense of reverence for the show. Although the seated venue and polite fans made it difficult to stand up and dance to the uptempo songs.

They played a short set both before and after IYFS - one new song, the rest mostly from their EPs (so I was very glad I went on a downloading rampage of their EPs last year!). Still confused about why they thought to play The Wrong Girl (it's mediocre at best), but - but - the third song they played was Women's Realm, which is one of my absolute favourites and I never dreamt they would play it, so right from the start I was pretty much set and the rest was a terrific sure-to-be-treasured bonus...

Download: Women's Realm

The string quartet comes out for Women's Realm...glorious!

posted by Aleksandra @ 10:44 AM