Who needs boys when there's Lisa around?
Mar. 5th, 2006 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatYesterday evening after work, I drove to Philadelphia to pick up ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje and go to the Electric Factory for the Belle and Sebastian concert. [Insert requisite complaint about the horrors of city driving here.] We were pretty early, and got a spot right up against the barrier, albeit off to the side a bit. The opening band was the New Pornographers. I didn't think they sounded quite as good as they did when we saw them back in October, not just because of the absence of Neko Case and Dan Bejar, but also because I don't think their sound was quite as crisp as it was then. We WERE right next to a speaker, though, so I'm willing to place some of the blame on that. They played for about an hour. As far as I can remember, their setlist was something like this (but not in this order):
Twin Cinema
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
The Jessica Numbers
The Bones Of An Idol
Sing Me Spanish Techno
From Blown Speakers
July Jones
Mass Romantic
The Fake Headlines
It's Only Divine Right
Testament To Youth In Verse
Letter From An Occupant
I was a little surprised at some of the choices. Since Neko and Dan weren't there, I figured they would stick to the songs where Carl Newman sings lead (which is most of them, so it's not like they'd be pressed for choices). Carl actually did a decent Dan imitation on "Testament." All of Neko's parts were sung by the other female member of the group, a young-looking girl with a really short haircut, whose name I can't remember. I thought she did a good job with them. I mean, she wasn't up to Neko's quality, but who is? I wish they'd done "Letter" when Neko WAS touring with them, though, since that's my favorite vocal performance of hers on a New Pornographers song. Oh, well. It's always cool when both the opener AND the headliner are bands you'd want to see anyway, and the New Pornographers seemed quite excited to be opening for B&S. Carl was even wearing a B&S T-shirt.
I can't remember everything that B&S played, and I know there were a few songs that I knew but couldn't think of the titles, so I'm just going to mention the highlights of their performance. As you'd expect, they played a fair amount of stuff from The Life Pursuit: "Another Sunny Day," "To Be Myself Completely," "The Blues Are Still Blue," "Funny Little Frog," and "Sukie In The Graveyard." They also did quite a few older songs, though, including "I Don't Love Anyone," "The Loneliness Of A Middle-Distance Runner," "Dog On Wheels," and "My Wandering Days Are Over." They took a few requests from screaming people in the audience. There were apparently several people yelling for "Jonathan David," which was cool, as it's one of my favorites as well. They actually did that one at my first B&S show, so now I've heard it live twice, which is awesome. Other highlights of the set for me included "Your Cover's Blown," "She's Losing It," "I'm A Cuckoo" (one of those songs I always get stuck in my head, yet don't know very many of the lyrics to, which is kind of irritating; but hey, it's a great song), and "Me And The Major" (which was part of their encore). For "Judy And The Dream Of Horses," they had some girl from the audience come up on stage and sing with them, which worked a lot better than I would have expected. I'd love to do that kind of thing. Not for that song, of course, since: 1) I'm not a girl, and 2) I'm pretty iffy on my B&S lyrics. If They Might Be Giants were to do something like that, I'd be all over it. And yes, I know the chances of that happening are exceedingly low, because: 1) I think the Johns would be more willing to be infected with the flesh-eating virus than to bring a fan up on stage with them, and 2) even if they WERE willing, one of those rude, pushy, step-on-your-toes-and-don't-apologize TMBG fans would probably be chosen, seeing as how they're chosen for pretty much everything. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah! I forget what the very last song was (if I can find a setlist online, maybe I'll do an edit), but after that, we went out to the lobby and bought some merchandise. I wanted the "Scotland's for me!" T-shirt, but they'd sold out of that, so I got the one with the cover picture of The Life Pursuit instead. Beth got the B&S tote bag and puzzle. Then we both went back to our respective homes, and I suppose that's all I have to say for now.
bethje and go to the Electric Factory for the Belle and Sebastian concert. [Insert requisite complaint about the horrors of city driving here.] We were pretty early, and got a spot right up against the barrier, albeit off to the side a bit. The opening band was the New Pornographers. I didn't think they sounded quite as good as they did when we saw them back in October, not just because of the absence of Neko Case and Dan Bejar, but also because I don't think their sound was quite as crisp as it was then. We WERE right next to a speaker, though, so I'm willing to place some of the blame on that. They played for about an hour. As far as I can remember, their setlist was something like this (but not in this order):Twin Cinema
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
The Jessica Numbers
The Bones Of An Idol
Sing Me Spanish Techno
From Blown Speakers
July Jones
Mass Romantic
The Fake Headlines
It's Only Divine Right
Testament To Youth In Verse
Letter From An Occupant
I was a little surprised at some of the choices. Since Neko and Dan weren't there, I figured they would stick to the songs where Carl Newman sings lead (which is most of them, so it's not like they'd be pressed for choices). Carl actually did a decent Dan imitation on "Testament." All of Neko's parts were sung by the other female member of the group, a young-looking girl with a really short haircut, whose name I can't remember. I thought she did a good job with them. I mean, she wasn't up to Neko's quality, but who is? I wish they'd done "Letter" when Neko WAS touring with them, though, since that's my favorite vocal performance of hers on a New Pornographers song. Oh, well. It's always cool when both the opener AND the headliner are bands you'd want to see anyway, and the New Pornographers seemed quite excited to be opening for B&S. Carl was even wearing a B&S T-shirt.
I can't remember everything that B&S played, and I know there were a few songs that I knew but couldn't think of the titles, so I'm just going to mention the highlights of their performance. As you'd expect, they played a fair amount of stuff from The Life Pursuit: "Another Sunny Day," "To Be Myself Completely," "The Blues Are Still Blue," "Funny Little Frog," and "Sukie In The Graveyard." They also did quite a few older songs, though, including "I Don't Love Anyone," "The Loneliness Of A Middle-Distance Runner," "Dog On Wheels," and "My Wandering Days Are Over." They took a few requests from screaming people in the audience. There were apparently several people yelling for "Jonathan David," which was cool, as it's one of my favorites as well. They actually did that one at my first B&S show, so now I've heard it live twice, which is awesome. Other highlights of the set for me included "Your Cover's Blown," "She's Losing It," "I'm A Cuckoo" (one of those songs I always get stuck in my head, yet don't know very many of the lyrics to, which is kind of irritating; but hey, it's a great song), and "Me And The Major" (which was part of their encore). For "Judy And The Dream Of Horses," they had some girl from the audience come up on stage and sing with them, which worked a lot better than I would have expected. I'd love to do that kind of thing. Not for that song, of course, since: 1) I'm not a girl, and 2) I'm pretty iffy on my B&S lyrics. If They Might Be Giants were to do something like that, I'd be all over it. And yes, I know the chances of that happening are exceedingly low, because: 1) I think the Johns would be more willing to be infected with the flesh-eating virus than to bring a fan up on stage with them, and 2) even if they WERE willing, one of those rude, pushy, step-on-your-toes-and-don't-apologize TMBG fans would probably be chosen, seeing as how they're chosen for pretty much everything. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah! I forget what the very last song was (if I can find a setlist online, maybe I'll do an edit), but after that, we went out to the lobby and bought some merchandise. I wanted the "Scotland's for me!" T-shirt, but they'd sold out of that, so I got the one with the cover picture of The Life Pursuit instead. Beth got the B&S tote bag and puzzle. Then we both went back to our respective homes, and I suppose that's all I have to say for now.
