Belle and Sebastian @ theMetro, Sydney (09/03/11)

Mon 14th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Their name is a byword for twee, but Belle and Sebastian has evolved from the hushed pop of the mid-90s into something rather more opulent. Last year’s Write About Love was the band’s richest album to date, with dreamy, sophisticated arrangements on a scale the early records could only hint at.

That grander scale plays out on stage, too. A Belle and Sebastian show is now a complex affair, with swarms of people on stage (at the peak, during closer The Blues are Still Blue, there were thirteen performers, including a four-piece string section and a trumpet player). Stuart Murdoch looks less like an icon for milquetoast boys, his polo shirts replaced by an alarmingly tight white t-shirt. He dances with the confidence of a man who knows that the audience will eat up his every move, and the crowd obliged by roaring approval at his every outburst of rhythm. There was no shortage of enthusiasm from the seemingly born-to-the-stage Murdoch, so it’s hard to articulate what made this performance merely good rather than great.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, that’s for certain. No one could fault the commitment of the band members, who brought a level of energy that many of their younger peers would struggle to match. On a crowded stage, each person seemed to play a dozen different instruments, never seeming to stand in the same place for two consecutive songs. Equally, the song selection was an inspired mix of old and new, mixing old favourites from Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister with noughties material, all of which were rendered beautifully by the band and led by Murdoch, who’s voice has held up remarkably.

On paper, then, it seems like a perfect gig: a keen, well-rehearsed band playing some of the greatest pop songs of the past two decades. Somehow, though, it didn’t reach the heights promised and the crowd’s attitude was the biggest obstacle.

It’s an all-too-common criticism of Sydney gigs, but the chattering members of the crowd seemed to outnumber the kind of obsessive fans for which Belle and Sebastian are famed. Move away from the barrier, where the hardcore, sing-along-to-every-word folk are gathered, and it became hard to hear the lyrics to If You’re Feeling Sinister over incessant babbling.

This might seem like a small complaint, but the difference was noticeable when big singles like The Boy With The Arab Strap or the jaunty sexual harassment number Step Into My Office, Baby kicked off. In those moments, the whole crowd was galvanised, and the energy lift in the room was almost palpable. It would’ve been nice to see that same engagement carried through, but even stunts like Murdoch’s mascara-hunting interlude in Lord Anthony couldn’t silence the self-involved.