Belle & Sebastian in Montreal and the Expos Fans Who Love Them

I’m a little bit wired. After all, I just returned from my most anticipated concert in quite some time. Tonight, I saw Belle & Sebastian, my band-du-year, at Metropolis. I had been awaiting this show (which sold out) for quite some time. In fact, I had been waiting to see this band for quite some time. As it’s late, I will be uncharacteristically brief, and moreover, not all that witty.
It’s always a good sign when you walk away from a show with the “Man, that was worth it” feeling. With a super-fun opening act in the New Pornographers, heaps of trademark B&S catchy, singalong tunes, and the usual upbeat disposition of frontman and key songwriter Stuart Murdoch and the rest of B&S, this kind of show was difficult to not enjoy – if you like this kind of music.

Usually, I expect shows to open up with a high-energy number, as the rockn’roll gods decreed. However, by playing mellow oldie “The State I Am In”, they did a good job doing what they do best – bucking logical convention.

Want to hear more of a review? Don't worry it's coming...bear with me. There's a method to my scatterbrained writing style.

A few things about seeing Belle and Sebastian that are completely refreshing. Firstly, the band members shuffle around a lot between different instruments, and sometimes a certain member may be playing no instrument at all. This approach allows most members get showcased to varying degrees (the drummer and keyboardist stick to their trades in an exclusive fashion), and more importantly, gets their fans to realize how much each member brings to the band’s overall sound. Personally, I admire musicians who can handle more than one instrument. The second thing that I think is truly great, is the fact that much like the jambands I used to go see exclusively, B&S plays a completely different setlist from show to show. Some bands rehearse a very finite number of songs for a tour, and recreate their previous night’s gig, um, nightly. Just looking at setlists from a series of shows earlier this month, one can see that they really cover a lot of ground in a given night. In other words, they play a lot of gems from their back catalog of 5 albums and countless EP’s. With a new disc to plug, they played a number of expected cuts from their new CD “The Life Pursuit” (the review of this has been in the works for a couple of weeks now – I’ll finish it soon – I think). The catchiest of these include “Another Sunny Day” and "Funny Little Frog”. Another one which grows on me the more I hear it is the Glam-my “The Blues are Still Blue”. While I do enjoy the new album, I was particularly keen to hear some songs which got me hooked on this band in the first place. In no particular order, the following were played over the course of the show. Please forgive me if I’ve left out something obvious:

Seeing Other People
Mayfly
Judy and the Dream of Horses
Dog on Wheels
Stringbean Jean
State I am in
Electric Renaissance
Piazza, New York Catcher
I’m a Cuckoo
Jonathan David
Sleep The Clock around

I’m know of two in particular I am missing. Sorry!

I also appreciate entertaining stage banter. Ad-libbed commentary on the city, people they meet, and the venue they are performing in can really say a lot about the intelligence of the performers. There was no shortage of it. Stuart poked a fair bit of fun at himself and the rest of the band by noting that they can only speak English (vs. French), by pointing out how many errors they made in Seeing Other People around, and also by admitting to the crowd he needs a lyrics sheet while delivering a performance of Piazza New York Catcher. Speaking of “Piazza”, I was telling my friend Christian, how it’s unique that a bunch of Scottish musicians happen to be baseball fans (which they apparently are). As soon as I said that, Stuart was asking the crowd whether or not there are were any fans of the dearly departed Expos. I was the first to let out a whoop, followed by a light smattering of other cheers. Stuart then made some sort of comment, based on the lukewarm reception about how it may not be all that surprising that they’ve left. I’m not really sure that the feelings of 2000 fans at a Belle & Sebastian concert represent those of an entire city (which incidentally has been numbed by the way it was mistreated and disrespected by the powers that be at Major League Baseball), but I guess the lack of enthusiasm for the name “Expos” was sort of telling. Just thought I would share that with you.

The biggest problem with a Belle & Sebastian show, is that they just have too many good songs, and can’t cram them all into an allotted two and a half hours. There are around six or seven songs off the top of my head which I would have loved for them to have played. But they didn’t – so I had to “settle” for what they did play. Oh well…woe is me.

A quick note about the New Pornos – great opener, and I will definitely make an effort to check out more of their stuff (I own a copy of Twin Cinema), and try to catch them when the next time they headline a gig in Montreal. It’s always a good sign when you find yourself catching onto a song’s hooks the first time you ever hear it. That happened a couple of times last night.

To sum up, I was not disappointed by this show in any real way. I have been a huge Belle & Sebastian addict and shill to friends for the last several months now. I was hadn’t been this excited for a show in ages. Since the concert ended, I have been wondering “when will I get to see B&S again?”. They don’t exactly make it to North America very often, with the last time having been in 2003. My plans to go see them in Amsterdam in May have been already kyboshed. Things are looking grim. Time to throw on Tigermilk.

Oh yes, and as for that whole "I'll be brief" thing - I lied.