Belle & Sebastian @ HerMajesty's Theatre, Adelaide(15/03/11)

Sat 19th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Her Majesty’s is a strange venue – very comfy seats. The grand old dame isn’t really suited to rock ‘n roll; fortunately neither Glaswegian troupe Belle & Sebastian nor Melbourne support Love Connection are, strictly speaking, rock ‘n roll groups. The latter play a weird brand of psychedelia that is missing the hooks that they need to power it into the next level – they’ve got something interesting to offer, but it’s very early in their development.

Belle & Sebastian are comparatively veterans – their storied debut,Tigermilk, was originally released in 1995, but it was the following year’s If You’re Feeling Sinister that truly broke them out to a worldwide audience. Stuart Murdoch’s tales of unrequited love, broken hearts and bookish thoughts put him alongside Morrissey as one of the great British songwriters

So when the band open with the title cut from that latter album to begin their debut gig in Adelaide? The chills were running up and down spines of the audience members more familiar with the key periods at the beginning of their career, rather than the flabby middle and the excellent return-to-form of the last two albums, 2006’s The Life Pursuit and last year’s Write About Love. It starts a gig that’s simply a joy – the band have always been far funkier than they’re given credit for being, and it’s been L.A.-based producer Tony Hoffer who’s captured that live prowess on disc in terrific ways for the last five years.

Clearly irked by the sit-down crowd, Murdoch keeps making sly little jokes about the attendees being over-tired on a Wednesday. But when the eight-piece band play the gorgeous Fox in the Snow – with four additional string players and a trumpet player, sourced locally – even the mightiest of standees would be reduced to sitting. It’s such a beautiful, beautiful song. For the most part Murdoch is the focus, but Sarah Martin gets her lead turn on Write About Love early on, while Stevie Jackson absolutely nails The Wrong Girl.

Eventually all the imploring to get the crowd to stand comes to fruition towards the end of the set with The Boy With the Arab Strap. The yellow-shirted security have other ideas, trying desperately to clear the exit pathways. Murdoch’s solution is simple – invite folks on stage! He gives out medals to the lucky few who make it on stage, as the band close their main set with another golden oldie, Sleep the Clock Around.

The encore is sadly only three songs long – If You Find Yourself Caught in
Love, Judy and the Dream of Horses and Me and the Major – but Belle &
Sebastian’s opening show in Adelaide will be long remembered as one of the
best opening salvos a Glaswegian band has given to Adelaide audiences.