12 March 2011
Under the star-like sky of The Forum, the sympathetic Scots of Belle and Sebastian made their appearance to treat the audience to a balanced mix of songs of off their latest album Write About Love as well as older tunes too.
Supporting is Love Connection, a band that’s living proof that there are still hippies amongst us. Modern hippies, that is. Their music is dreamy but up-beat, dynamic, but idealistic. The long-haired Michael Caterer looks like the long lost brother of The Addams Family’s Cousin It, commenting: “I can’t see anything!”, his hair hanging in front of his face most of the time. He later tells his audience about his hair washing routine, then decides a pony tail might be more practical on stage. Love Connection’s songs feature synth-based melodies and reverb, slow starts building up to a climax. Their songs start tenderly, dreamingly, almost hypnotic, only to shake everyone awake again with heavy guitars. A guy in the audience, wearing a plain black T-shirt that says ‘Barry & Stuart & Martin & Dominic & John’ in white letters earns himself a compliment from Michael Caterer to enthusiastic applause. Clearly the crowd is warmed up and ready to see Belle and Sebastian.
More and more instruments are carried on stage. Appearing are a cello, violins, a flute and numerous guitars. One of the keyboards is decorated with Write About Love’s cover picture. Blue rays of light shine out, it looks like a spaceship is landing but it turns out to be Belle and Sebastian arriving on stage. They kick things off with ‘I Didn’t See it Coming’. Stuart Murdoch wears funky sunglasses, greeting the crowd and setting the mood with“Good night to you all. It’s a Saturday night with Belle and Sebastian… we’re going to dance.”
‘Come on Sister’ features a catchy, organ-like intro. Stuart shows off his dance moves; in the background the cover picture of Write About Love lights up in green, orange, yellow and red. It’s all pretty groovy. Next the crowd is treated to ‘Step into My Office, Baby’. For this set, the seven band members are backed up by extra touring musicians, with at least ten people on stage at all the times, and the diversity of instruments keeps the songs refreshing while diverging from their album versions.
“So I see this girl with a little note pad and a pen here on the front row.” Stuart says. It takes some time before I realise he’s talking about me. “Are you from the press? That’s so cute, I thought you guys all used these high tech gadgets. Now you can write in your review that “The man on stage told me my hair looks really good today”’. The crowd giggles and tries to catch a glimpse of me. I hide. The band plays ‘Another Sunny Day’.
‘Piazza New York Catcher’ gets an introduction that gives us the background to Belle and Sebastian’s cover art: “This one is from our yellow and black album. I do the album art since I’m the colorblind one. You’ll notice all our albums are in primary colors.” explains Stuart, after which the band members have a discussion about which colors their different albums have. The song shows exactly how well the band plays with all these extra instruments, featuring a harmonica and the amusing a cappella part. The next song, ‘I Want the World’ to Stop is one of the new tunes, easy listening, upbeat, exemplary for Belle and Sebastian’s quirky twee style and comes with extra violins and expressive dancing by Stuart. Who can say no to that?
‘Lord Anthony’ is part of their set too, in a stripped down, heartfelt version. Stuart lets a girl on the front row put make up on his face to the lines: Tony, you’re a bit of a mess/Melted Toblerone under your dress/If the kids could see you they would pass you right by/Blue mascara running over your eye. “Something else I promised myself I would never do again is taking make up from girls in the audience. But I’m going to anyway. My wife said I should be carrying my own, but I thought, why should I? I’m a man in the prime of his life. Surely, I can’t be carrying make up?” The crowd agrees.
Sympathetic as they are, Belle and Sebastian are also calculated in some requests, “You had to get them in two weeks in advance, signed by your mother.” ‘The State I Am’ In is then played for some lucky bastard after several people in the crowd yell their own requests at the top of their lungs.
For ‘Boy With the Arab Strap’, Stuart mentions á propos of nothing that he wouldn’t mind if some people came to dance on stage. Immediately six people storm the stage and dance merrily along with him. After their performance, the dancers are treated to a medal each. ‘If You Find Yourself Caught in Love’ sees Stuart living up to the statue-mingling reputation that he earned himself at a previous gig in the Forum. He disappears from stage, only to appear again on the high up left hand part of the stage, next to one of the David-esque statues to include it in a little dance.
“This next song is for you, we are after all a shared Commonwealth!” Stuart declares, wearing an Australian flag for a cape, as they launch in to a cover of The Kinks’, ‘Victoria’, to a boisterous, patriotic crowd, all singing along. Then, one last elegant bow, and they are off. Not to fear though: crowd pleaser ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’ is played in the encore, along with ‘The Blues Are Still Blue’.
The ever charming Belle and Sebastian certainly live up to their crowd’s expectations with this set. Twee, gleeful and upbeat, sometimes emotional, shy and confrontational; but always so very cute and likeable.
– Laura Macek
