Cheap thrills

Belle and Sebastian with the New Pornographers

Jim Furbush

There aren’t supposed to be concerts like this, two immensely popular bands, both at interesting career crossroads, playing at a venue too intimate for either band. Belle and Sebastian have grown up sonically with the help of producers Trevor Horn and Tony Hoffer on their last two albums. The Scottish band has evolved from the forlorn and mopey youngsters of past albums into rather optimistic and gleeful adults. Of course, with any band you just pray that longevity doesn’t make them suck. At a certain point you either have to cash in on your catalogue and play the crowd’s favorites, see the Rolling Stones, or like U2 subtly tweak your sound so it sounds fresh yet familiar. Thankfully, Belle and Sebastian, seven full-length albums in, seem to be charting the U2 path.

The New Pornographers, on the other hand, feel like they should be the greatest rock band in the world. For whatever reason, they are mired in that weird nether world of being too big for Indie rock but have yet to break mainstream. Their songs are tailor made to be summer time radio hits, like Modest Mouse’s “Float On,” and yet, and yet, they still remain the world’s best kept secret.

Before Monday night’s show, Carl Newman, ring leader for the New Pornographers was milling around outside Avalon and no one even really recognized him, not the bouncers, not even the kids waiting in line to ostensibly see his band perform. That is the epitome of being an Indie rock god.

One gets the feeling that if the New Pornographers don’t break out in a huge way, beyond the people who read pitchforkmedia.com, the band members could decide to go their separate ways. Thus, the New Pornographers will be remembered as one of those strange bands, like the Velvet Underground, use musical influence far outweighs their popularity. Why can’t a band this talented have it both ways?

The New Pornographers walked on stage precisely at 8 p.m., much to the surprise of the kids milling around outside and in the lobby. The band blistered through their set of power pop, playing mostly songs off of their latest disc, “Twin Cinema.” Neither Neko Case or Dan Bejar were with the band, but that mattered little. Kathryn Calder, the infamous long-lost niece of Carl Newman, steps into the shoes of alt-country chanteuse with the greatest of aplomb. Calder’s singing voice, less deep than Case’s, was exceptional on songs like “Mass Romantic,” “All For Swinging You Around” and “Bones of an Idol.”

“Bones of an Idol” surprised the heck out of me. On the album, the song seems dull, but played live the band breathed a sense of epic haunting to it. Other crowd favorites were “Slow Descent into Alcoholism” and “Sing Me Spanish Techno.” Both songs are immensely bouncy, hook heavy, and catchy as hell.

Newman even did a decent job of singing two Dan Bejar songs, “Jackie Dressed in Cobras” and “Testament to Youth in Verse.” Though they didn’t play “Starbodies,” they did play “Miss Teen Wordpower.” Overall, their too short one-hour set displayed the harmonies and craftsmanship expected of a band at the top of their game. The New Pornographers confirmed that they are not just a studio creation, but also an amazing live band, with the ability to interact with the crowd and expand their song catalogue beyond the studio.

Belle and Sebastian has taken some flak for their newer studio efforts not being up to their earlier efforts. But with the obvious exception of 2000’s “Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant,” which in its defense was not altogether bad it just had too many misfires, the band has never released an album that would alienate fans or kill their career. As they demonstrated last night, Belle and Sebastian aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Their set was well mixed between older hits from “Tigermilk” and “If You’re Feeling Sinister” to the newer stuff off of “The Life Pursuit.” My only disappointment was that they shunned the recent and underrated “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” album almost entirely.

Opening with the hushed singing and acoustic strumming from lead singer Stuart Murdoch, the band lit a slow fuse into “The Stars of Track and Field.” The audience was so ecstatic to hear anything from “Sinister” that they began cheering rabidly before Mick even launched into his trumpet solo.

From there they played several of their bouncy jangle pop numbers including, crowd clap-along “Family Tree” and “Another Sunny Day.” The entire band was given room to shine including lead guitarist Stevie Jackson and violinist Sarah Martin. The rest of the band demonstrated their musical talents as many of them switched between several instruments including bass, trumpet, guitar, and keyboard.

Make no mistake though, because Murdoch was front and center the entire night dancing, prancing and joking with the crowd. When he botched the lyrics to “White Collar Boy” he made a Milli Vanilli joke and then offered to sing the line a cappella style with Martin and Jackson. It was a testament to the veracity of live music.

Even during bathroom break songs such as the delicate “Fox in the Snow” and “Dress Up in You,” the audience hung on to every delicate word. Surprisingly, the band’s move away from their preciousness with songs like “White Collar Boy” and “The Blues are Still Blue” hasn’t cost them anything that makes Belle and Sebastian unique in the first place.

A rare treat for the audience, the band played two songs anomalous to their oeuvre. “Electric Renaissance” turned Avalon into something out of Manchester in 1991, the spacey disco rave-up even had the kids bouncing in the aisles. Also, mini-epic “Your Cover’s Blown” from the “Books” EP is a three-part song moving from hard disco dance beats into flamenco riffs and finally settling into the more familiar twee pop sound.

Belle and Sebastian deftly mixed their older and new songs together, for an incredible sunny retro California sixties pop sound. Although the band isn’t as popular as they should be, the band made a statement that they aren’t going away anytime soon either.

Jim Furbush can be reached at jfurbush@theoysteronline.com

Correction, March 2, 2006: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Trevor Horn as the producer on "The Life Pursuit" LP.  The real producer was Tony Hoffer. 

03/01/2006   |   Permalink