Sinister: Belle and Seb-as-ti-an, at the Black Cat club

[Reid Dossinger]

...and 800 people scream simultaneously.  "Is he trying to break his own
record for Longest Post Ever?!"  Here's an ink polaroid: a early morning
knock on the door of a unassuming country house outside of Chapel Hill.
A man in his late twenties opens the door and sees hundreds of
international Belle and Sebastian fans, led by Honey "Paul" Mitchell,
who is brandishing a crowbar.  "Reid, we're here for your computer."

This time around, I don't have any stories of me humiliating myself in
front of a B&S member.  Not even Richard.  But, as this tour has gone
on, I'm always glad when people give long descriptions of the shows, so
I'm just doing the same.  I hope no one's too annoyed...but Friday was
(unfortunately) my last show, so this will be it for me for a while.

First off, it's really strange that there were TWO other stories of
people getting stomach aches during the show, because I was about to
swear I had appendicitis I was in so much pain.  But then about half an
hour after the show was over, I felt fine.  Something in the club
maybe?  Or maybe it was that Salmonella Salad (aka Chicken Ceasar salad)
I had beforehand.  Or maybe it's an epidemic and we'll all be dead in 48
hours.  Whatever.

If Isobel really was afraid that Americans wouldn't like B&S, she
couldn't possibly think that anymore after seeing the line outside the
Black Cat before the show.  The doors were VERY late to open, and it
seemed as though at one point, every person who had a ticket to the show
was in line.  And an impressive line it was, stretching well down the
street.  My friends and I entertained each other in line by imagining
B&S introducing their songs like a metal band: "There's somthin' I gotta
know, Washington, and I need to know now...IS
IT...WICKED...NOT...TO...CAAARRRE?!!!! <crowd erupts, song starts>"  I
also got to pass time in line by meeting the very sweet and very lovely
Jessica #4, who is appropriately appreciative of the single version of
Lazy Line Painter Jane.  Jessica, I'm sorry I just cut off our
conversation.  I was beginning to get anxious, and I'm sorry I was so
rude.

Unfortunately, we were let into the club early enough to hear Guv'ner.
In Athens, the opening band was Masters of the Hemisphere who sounded a
lot like They Might Be Giants, and were a great choice for an opening
band.  Even if you didn't *like* them, they were fun to listen to.
Guv'ner, on the other hand, was possibly the most inappropriate opening
choice this side of Rammstein.  They were way too loud, and even beyond
that, they were just boring indie guitar rock.  The only thing that kept
it from being completely unbearable was my friend Susan's incredible
expressions of pain.  She looked like the Scream painting after he'd got
done screaming and just gone back to being depressed and in pain.  I've
never actually been to a gig when the band's loudest applause came when
they announced they only had one more song.  And, poor things, several
people even cheered really loudly when they said this was their
second-to-last show.

So, the show.  I know some people have put in the set lists, but I
thought I'd give it here for those picky people like me who like seeing
it written out as a list.  Again, I was an idiot and forgot to bring in
a pen so I could write down the list, but I know the first 7 are right,
and the last two, and I got all the songs (I think) that they played,
but the middle songs are in the wrong order.

Dog On Wheels
Like Dylan In the Movies
I Know Where the Summer Goes
It's Hard to be a Jew at Christmas
A Century of Elvis
Mayfly
Ease Your Feet In the Sea
Seeing Other People
Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying
New Song
Stars of Track and Field
Wrong Girl
Is it Wicked Not to Care
Dirty Dream #2
Sleep the Clock Around

Notice the South Park tribute.  I don't know if it was Stuart D. or
Chris who did it, but they had some effect that made their voice sound
cartoony, so I guess they wanted to take advantage of it.  To put it
mildly, it was VERY entertaining to the band, Stuart M. especially.

But we need to get to the most intriguing part of the night...the new
song.  I was trying to remember a few lines from it, but they're
slipping my mind.  Stevie was playing a phased-out guitar, Stuart sang,
it was mid-tempo, kind of dark and very Smiths-y.  Is this "Rhoda"?  Or
"Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner"?  The only info we got from the
band was that it had never been released.  But I'd love to know what it
is.

The suprise at this show was how much they played off of Sinister.  All
of them were pretty faithful.  Seeing Other People sounded good, but was
mostly the same as the album version, Get Me Away was a little (a
*little*) less powerful than the album version, but Stars was
fantastic.  If I had a live version of the song, I'd rewind the last
twenty seconds over and over.  It was essentially the same as the album,
but I think that the difference was being able to watch Mick waiting for
that last one-note trumpet part, and when he finally got to it, it was
like he had been holding his breath just so he could put everything he
had into it.  Stunning.

I was always half-and-half on the session version of Wrong Girl...it
sounded a little too much like a campfire sing-along.  But the version
they did Friday was a huge improvement.  The drums were heavier and the
instrumentation was a lot more lush and thought out.  Which I guess is
understandable seeing as how the session version was learned by the band
only hours before they recorded it.  I also hadn't heard I Know Where
the Summer Goes, and it was, as Katrina said, lovely.  Similar to
Century of Fakers, but a little more folky...it would sound cozy with
the Dog On Wheels stuff.  My friend Christian thought it was the
highlight of the show.

To me, the highlights were the beginning and the end.  I've never been
Dog On Wheels' biggest fan, but the addition of strings during the
trumpet solo was heart-breakingly gorgeous.  And I've always been Sleep
the Clock Around's biggest fan, and it was better live than I could have
imagined.  It was the album version for the most part, but Chris added
in the piano from the session version at the very end.  I can't imagine
a better way to end the show.

The "adorable" levels were skyrocketing.  I mean, first you've got
Isobel's tiger hat.  Then Stuart gets all kinds of excited because he
was given a wireless microphone.  "I've never had one of these before",
and he takes it out of the stand, jumps up on the monitors and starts
making strange noises, just because he could.  Then he asks if the
lights can be turned up a bit so he can see people in the audience.
Someone yells out "Stars of Track and Field" and he said, "Who said
that?  How can you read the set list from back there?"  By the way,
maybe it was just the two shows I went to, but by the end of each,
almost every song title had been yelled out.  Christian and I were
waiting for someone to be snobby enough to yell out "Hurley's Having
Dreams" or "London Has Let Me Down Again."  Anyway, the greatest image
of the concert was when they played Wrong Girl and Stuart M. played bass
("Stuart's really coming along on bass", says Stevie) and was downright
rocking, bobbing back and forth.  They should let him play bass more
often.

They were definitely tight overall and sounded great and like they were
in good moods, but the pauses between the songs were longer than they
were in Athens.  And it was a lot more difficult to see at the Black
Cat.  For us, the whole show was basically the Stuart M., Stevie and
Mick show with the occasional cameo by Isobel.  We only saw Sarah, Chris
and Stuart D. when they were walking onto and off of the stage.  There
were huge speakers on either side of the stage that meant that if you
were off to the side (like we were, because, as usual, the front and
center was populated by guys over 6'2") you couldn't see a whole lot.

I was almost a little sad when it was all over.  I don't know if this
was because I realized that with a little more foresight, I might have
been able to see the New York shows.  Maybe I was sad just because it
was over.  I don't know.  As my main squeeze Emily and I rode back to
Chapel Hill this morning, I told her about how I've been waking up
really early for the last week because I start thinking about Belle and
Sebastian and then can't get back to sleep, and about how I think about
them all the time and about how completely overjoyed I felt when I heard
about the new EP coming out.  And Emily said, "You're in love with
them."  Then she made some smutty remarks about walking in on me rubbing
the albums all over my body.  That was a little unnecessary.  Funny, but
unnecessary.  But I do feel like I'm in love.  I have trouble sleeping,
I lost my appetite before the shows and get all weak when I listen to
them.  It'd be pathetic if it didn't feel so good.

I'm glad I can write all this to a bunch of people who understand.
Normally I don't go in for this sort of drivel, but...this is different.

Everybody say "Hell, yeah!",
     Reid

ps. It's good to see Brad back on the list...our smut levels were
dipping dangerously low.


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