I am from Brazil. Precisely from Rio de Janeiro. And, of course, I was there at the Belle & Sebastian gig at Free Jazz Festival (although I must admit there was almost nothing could be precisely nominated as "jazz" in the cast). After a short Sygur Rós presentation, after which the brains of the audience felt confortably melted, everyone started singing "The State I Am In" as if it was the national anthem, with hands on chest. I thought B&S fans in Brazil were, as I am, a little more discreet and introspective. When the show started, a guy on the left start yellin' the lyrics in Sepultura style, guturally. He didn't care about the melody at all, and cared a few about metrics: he just wanted to prove to everyone around that, although he had a terrible lack of musical talent, had spent about 20 hours a day in front of the stereo, so he could memorize every single line of every single song. When Steve started playing the horn, so that we all realized that "Me and the Major" was on its way, I had to run away, because the same guy started jumping like a monkey. Uau, he was in a speed metal gig in his mind!... I squeezed myself through the crowd, so I reached the other side, we're I would be safe. At this point, I saw a group of girls who, on the other hand, didn't know anything of what was happening on stage. They were just glancing aroung, adjusting their tight skirts and heavy make-up, looking for true love, I guess. By the time "Don't Leave the Light on Baby" begun, they were flirting with a group of sympathetic guys, including me. I was too much focused to pay attention to them, but I have to admit they were preety beautiful! I simply wasn't in the mood for any extra activity: just watching the show carefully, so I could always make a mind visitation to that moment of my life and experiment that feelings all over again: the excitation, the groove, the anxiety for not knowing what could come next in the setlist. I had to keep'em, because there is a strong possibilty the band will never come to my country again. When I turned back to the girls, "The Boy with the Arab Strap" was in the middle, and they were dancing with their brand new pairs. I felt a sincere happiness: they were not there for a B&S show at all, but, even then, the reached their objective. Touching... "Fox in the Snow" was the emotional peak of the night. There were other highlights. The girls-who-found-love in front of me loved when the band covered Caetano Veloso's "Baby" in a perfect arrangement and "Minha Menina", a classic with Os Mutantes. Finally something they could sing aloud!! By the way, does anyone know if Sarah Martin has ever spoken portuguese before??? She sang amazingly well! After the show, headed home. It was thursday, and the office was waiting for me the following day. What else could I do? But I confess I hardly slept that night... Uff!! HOw hard it is to write the first text to a list! I felt obliged to say something about B&S. Promise I will be more original and personal on next messages. * * * * another thing * * * * I am sorry for the "test message" that went before this one. My younger brother was on command of the computer and I asked him to send a message for the list, saying something nice, in order to test my inclusion in it. He just perpetrated this bad, bad, bad joke and didn't think about the consequences it could have for me and my reception, as a foreing element, in Sinister. So sorry, sorry and sorry again. As someone said to me sooner, as a comment, "we take the list we make" - or something similar. I belive that too. Roberto +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+