dear sinister, (my nth attempt at posting. don't ask.) you may (or may not) recall my plea in mid-january for transportation between toronto and montreal. i wanted very badly to attend both belle & sebastian shows. lo and behold, via this marvellous invention that is the internet, i found a girl with similar plans, and better yet, an automobile. she had posted on bowlie looking for passengers, so whoever it was on both sinister and bowlie who hooked us up, thank you. that was an act of genuine kindness. i hope you get rewarded in your next life. it was a brilliant weekend. my boyfriend and i decided to get our money's worth and we lined up embarrassingly early for both shows. i can't think of any other band for whom i'd withstand such a lot of physical discomfort -- about six hours standing, no bathroom breaks, of which almost two were spent outside on bitterly cold, canadian february nights. but it proved to be a very wise decision, particularly for the toronto show at the docks. the docks is by far the worst venue i've ever been to. i guess the band has already vowed never to return there. it's essentially a trendhole nightclub and not meant to be a concert venue, since it's long, narrow and flat. we were right up at the barriers in front of the stage, so i can't actually complain about my view, but i imagine it was wretched further back. i don't have the setlist for toronto, but they started with "stars of track and field", and then jumped around quite a bit. the songs off the new album sound cracking live, particularly "white collar boy". i even starting warming to "sukie in the graveyard" (sorry, that song doesn't do much for me). i really would have liked to hear "we are the sleepyheads", but it wasn't to be. they played a fair bit off IYFS, and absolutely nothing off TBWTAS, to my dismay, but made up for that the following night in montreal, when they played "sleep the clock around" at the encore. the montreal setlist: the state i am in another sunny day seeing other people sukie in the graveyard to be myself completely electronic renaissance the loneliness of a middle distance runner the blues are still blue piazza, new york catcher slow graffiti funny little frog mayfly your cover's blown dog on wheels i'm a cuckoo jonathan david white collar boy judy and the dream of horses encore: string bean jean sleep the clock around the highlights? - "your cover's blown": both nights, but especially in montreal. even our teddy bear gets up and dances when we play it at home -- and he's a very lazy little bear. - "sleep the clock around": it's only got one of my favourite b&s lines ("and when you saw it all come, it was waving the flag of the united states of calamity, hey"). and it sounded surreal live. - "string bean jean": stuart needed the lyrics, which was oddly endearing. - "slow graffiti": i just wish people wouldn't holler during the quiet bits. they're meant to be quiet. - "electronic renaissance": i love that they've started playing this one regularly. - "jonathan david": totally unexpected. stevie reeks of style. - stuart's dream, which he described in some detail after apologizing for being distracted and making mistakes while playing "seeing other people". he was apparently thinking about this dream he had had. it involved an awkward situation with a former girlfriend and her kid brother who was actually a beeping robot on wheels. stuart asked for requests during the encore in toronto, and he called on me -- we were meant to raise our hands politely for mr. murdoch. i asked for "meat and potatoes" (i feel a great deal of affection for that song). he smiled, made some comment about getting toronto into the bedroom mood, but played "me and the major". oh well. it was a better request than "legal man" (the girl next to us). stuart's a bit of a showman, isn't he; he jumped down from the stage in the middle of the montreal show while they were fiddling with sarah's guitar and shook hands with everyone in the front row ("just like elvis," commented stevie), starting with me -- yes, i had positioned myself directly in front of his mic. i was so taken aback i don't think i mustered even a "hello" in response to his rather cordial "hello, nice to meet you, i'm stuart". the rest of the band were rather quiet, especially sarah, who seemed not to have too much to do in her corner on the stage. bob spent most of his time eyeing the girls in the front. it was altogether too good a weekend. now i've nothing much to look forward to. incidentally, was anyone else in toronto planning to go see isobel last saturday as part of CMW? we bought tickets (i couldn't help it, it was three parts morbid curiosity to one part genuine interest in hearing her live). then on friday she cancelled the show -- according to the man at soundscapes, she never made it out of the UK due to some illness which prevented her from flying (an ear infection, he hypothesized). hmm. i apologize if this got a bit rambly. i suppose i'm making up for over a year of lurking. layla p.s.: the new pornographers were really good too. i just realized i left out any mention of them, and that seemed a bit unfair. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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