At the final moment I cried
I always cry at endings
Everything that has a beginning also has an end. This is not a concert review. These are the words which conclude the most wonderful of fairy tales. But let us by all means begin with the first chapter.
The Stars of Track and Field was the first song I heard of Belle and Sebastian. If You're Feeling Sinister the first album. Like so many others, I immediately fell in love. There are so many memories. I lay on the bed and looked through the booklet while I was amazed by how beautiful everything was. The piano in The Fox in the Snow. The third verse of Like Dylan in the Movies. The back of the booklet: "But Isobel, who's going to support us when our dreams crash against the rocks?
It was so long ago. I was so young. A lot has changed and still nothing at all. A boy's room has been replaced by a student room. Reflection on life has become ... thoughts about life. I still miss Isobel Campbell but Belle and Sebastian have always been there anyway. Strange though, I have never seen them live. Even my diary notes fail to explain what I did those nights when I had the chance. I personally think that I was in a coma. Apparently, I woke up late last summer. A new tour followed with the latest album The Life Pursuit, and I knew I would get another chance to see Belle and Sebastian live.
Finally the big day came. At friends Elisabet and Cecilia's home, we whistled our way through Asleep on a Sunbeam and Dress Up in You before we stepped on the bus to Malmö. We came to the venue Kulturbolaget just before nine o'clock and was welcomed by the dj playing Language of Flowers - Where You Belong. I was instantly in love with life again. We ordered at the bar and headed toward the stage. Although the support act Suburban Kids With Biblical Names already had played, it was surprisingly no congestion. We settled closed to the stage, full of expectations and dreams.
Stuart and his band soon wanders onto the stage to the audience's applause. I count to six men and two women. Only recognize Stuart, Sarah and Stevie. The introduction is brilliant. I smile a little more when The Stars of Track and Field opens the show. Stuart raises his voice, and while the guitars roar at the end he tries to convince us that the stars of track and field are beautiful people. Though it is obviously us he sings about. When the band follows up with Another Sunny Day everyone in the crowd gets a ridiculously charming smile. It should not be possible, but my favorite song on The Life Pursuit sounds better than on record. We are so happy. Wonderful. Stuart goes on to silly talk but soon mentions The Belle and Sebastian Song Book, and we who are near the stage see that he holds up the cover of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasent. Many thoughts are running through my head. The Model? There's Too Much Love? I Fought in a War? In one second's time I calculate the probabilities for each song to be played only to reject the science and decide that it is better to wait and see. It became Women's Realm. The strings are so beautiful. Then we hear Belle and Sebastian's theme song from their first EP Dog on Wheels. The concert really feels perfect.
I did not really want to hear more songs from the new album but you may not always get as you want. Sukie in the Graveyard is a filler in this set. After that, a laptop is activated and the screen is shaking. It could only be one song.
"I still do no like it", Cecilia tells me. She is not alone. But those who fall, they fall really with a thud. Belle and Sebastian run over half the audience and I love it. After that, one expects higer tempo but unfortunately Electronic Renassaince also begins the bitter end. The fillers are stocked in and it suddenly feels uninspirational. Belle and Sebastian are too good to play songs like The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner and Funny Little Frog. Had I brought a note with my song wishes to Stuart, I would had written down Sleep the Clock Around, String Bean Jean, Another Sunny Day, Dirty Dream Number Two, Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying, Lazy Line Painter Jane, I Could Be Dreaming, There's Too Much Love and Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie on it. I got two of them. The rest of the gig does not quite appeal to me. All that is good on record sounds better live and vice versa. A Century of Fakers is magic. Your Cover's Blown is garbage. And I am starting to get disturbed by the bouncing balls next to me. The two idiot girls who jump up and down to the quiet songs make me move closer to the stage. They have apparently also paid entrance but I wonder how people can have such a lack of self-awareness that they do not understand they spoil others' pleasure when all people give you the mean eye.
The spotlights are aimed at the entire scene but all light falls on Stuart. Even before the first song played he sets the bar by jokingly saying his newly purchased shirt is too short. We hear a brief chorus of Mamma Mia and Stuart is also trying to get a girl at the front to shed a tear, but she just laughs. He should have asked a young boy to sigh instead. But it does not seem to bother Stuart who dances on as if he were in his own world. He and many others.
After the encore The Boy With the Arab Strap is played and the crowd is bouncing up and down clapping the hands. This time more justified and they look happy. Belle and Sebastian leave the scene for the second time and it was long since I heard an audience applaud so convincingly. It is over. I cry inside. It hurts so much to write it but I am a little disappointed. It was good. So much better than almost anything else. Yet something is missing. I want to run past all the guards into the backstage room and shout at Stuart to play SLEEP THE CLOCK AROUND. I was hoping for more than happy pop to whistle to. I wanted seriousness.
May 2006 was to become the best month. We are halfway through. Belle and Sebastian is still one of the world's best bands. But not the best. A dream came true this evening, while another died. When I got off the bus in Lund, it rained. It would not end like this but it is probably best that we go our separate ways. I am grateful that I got to see Belle and Sebastian.
But Isobel, who's going to support me when my dreams crash against the rocks? I will ask her when she comes here in a couple of weeks.
Eight out of Ten
Setlist
(subject to minor mistakes)
The Stars of Track and Field
Another Sunny Day
Women's Realm
Belle and Sebastian
Sukie in the Graveyard
Electronic Renaissance
The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner
To Be Myself Completely
Piazza, New York Catcher
Funny Little Frog
A Century of Fakers
We Are the Sleepyheads
Your Cover's Blown
Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie
I'm a Cucko
Jonathan David
White Collar Boy
Me and the Major
Encore
If You Find Yourself Caught in Love
The Boy With the Arab Strap
(Originally published on May 15, 2006)
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