I had my cherry popped this spring, attenting both the NYC picnic and the concert, and I am finally getting around to writing about it. It was a great time, but I have to say, I was very surprised by B&S's onstage persona. I guess because the songs have so much subtlety and are so expressive of the tentative and the ephemeral, I expected something that was a little more restrained, more singer-songwriterish, I guess. I expected Struan to be unglamourous and to wear an oversized T-shirt with some holes in it, to be a little shaggy, to sit on a stool and sing into a microphone and mostly look at the base of the microphone stand and his shoes and nothing else. I did NOT expect a fair-haired boy in a tight white T-shirt to be pumping out revved-up, shining-happy-people versions of their super-sensitive songs. And I did NOT expect a light show, diverting as it was. I thought the whole point of B&S was that they didn't buy into all of that. This all brings to mind a comment a friend of mine made about the secret ambitions of all "indy" film directors: in the end, they all just want to make Out of Africa. Why I didn't think that would apply to "indy" music I don't know. But I did have a great time. It was great fun to see everyone scramble around the stage and take up or shed instruments like so many pieces of vintage clothing at the Salvation Army while trying to keep up with the music. I am glad I got to see the infamous Isobel before her departure, although she seemed to have been mentally elsewhere already. And boy did she make sure you knew it. Interesting that she didn't appear to want to be there but made herself so conspicuous, with the red outfit and all. The band was great, my earlier comments notwithstanding. It was tremendous to hear the songs live. Anyway, it's good to be taking in the list again and to cast off the rags of the lurker and be heard!!!! Heart, Andrew ----------------------------------------------- "Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving one's self." --Ludwig Wittgenstein _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+