Last night I saw Belle and Sebastian with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The show was great, if a little short. The last time the Phil was paired with a rock band was in 1994, so I felt really lucky to have seen this unique pairing. The biggest downside for me is that I always end up sitting near the "guy who must sing loudly along to every song he knows". I didn't pay $50 to hear you sing! Luckily his knowledge of the B&S back catalogue didn't extend to the newer stuff...
The highlight was a super disco-rockin' version of "Your Cover's Blown" where Stuart Murdoch sang and ran through the audience. The songs that worked the most beautifully with the addition of an orchestra were "Don't Leave the Light on, Baby" and "If She Wants Me". Seeing them live reminded me how laid back they are as musicians and people. This was definitely not a jump up and shake your ass show. That being said, it was still really fun. Other memorable tracks they played were "Sukie in the Graveyard", "I'm a Cuckoo", "Lord Anthony" (during which Stuart had a woman from the audience lend him a dress and apply mascara to his eyes), and "Dear Catastrophe Waitress".
Posted on 07/07/2006
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My Trusted MOGs
sounds like a great show,i really want to see them again, one of those few bands that i have verything ever released (i think)...did you get there in time for the shins who i believe were opening, maybe i'm wrong, if so any good? new stuff? do tell
My Trusted MOGs
I arrived just as B&S were strolling on stage. I have to say that i'm really not into the Shins, so I purposefully missed them. Sorry!
My Trusted MOGs
Unfortunately, I missed this show but the other times I saw B & S they were spectactular...I was high for weeks afterwards. The first time I saw them at the Wiltern they put on a fantastic show and even played a chill-inspiring version of Love's "Alone Again Or." The second time I got front row seats at San Diego's Speckles Theatre. They played almost every track off Tigermilk and Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I envy whoever saw this LA show. In the book, "This is Just a Modern Rock Band," apparently, it took a while for them to actually get their act together live and they were extremely ametuerish...I find that hard to believe now. I'll go out on a limb and say that their best album is "Fold Your Hands Child.." as evidenced here:
My Trusted MOGs
Re: Max's question about The Shins' opening set (comments aren't nested, so I hope this isn't confusing...):
Shins performed well, but they were comically far apart from each other on the vast Hollywood Bowl stage. This didn't do a lot for their set. That said, they played several songs from the album they're currently working on, and they were great. In fact, the songs were better than when I saw them perform songs from Chutes Too Narrow before that album came out.
Both bands made jokes about the audience sitting down and eating bourgy food, by the way, which I thought was funny.