Belle & Sebastian / The New Pornographers
By Kimberly Rosenbauer
Monday. Apr 03, 4:04 AM
live at Riviera Theater (Chicago, IL) March 10th, 2006.

You’ve gotta love this line up. Two septets, two bands singing upbeat songs about your typical heartache as well as atypical topics like alcoholism and frogs, two lead singers with slight lisps, and two amazingly creative entities.

The New Pornographers started the night with a lengthy set, doing their “opener” status more than right. Of course, walking on stage, everyone’s looking for Neko. Absent from class. Damn. You know it’s just not going to be the same with her being on tour now promoting her solo album. Her replacement is singer A.C. Newman’s niece, Kathryn Calder, and I’m already judging her. I can’t help it, she has big shoes to fill.

The band really captured the audience just a few songs in with “July Jones” from their debut album, Electric Version. To this Chicago audience’s delight, Newman brought out a fellow Chicagoan girl named Laura to sing this one (and later on a few others). Laura sang on the group’s last two albums and, with an additional female voice, the group’s sound became fuller and more layered. Ms. Calder, I should mention, did well to hold her own through songs like “Testament to Youth in Verse” and “Slow Descent into Alcoholism.” She grabbed the notes, but did not cut through the music to make the lyrics heard clearly. She just doesn’t have the “oomph” that Neko has. But what can you do?

Live, a band that has several key harmonies can potentially be at risk. The New Pornographers perform, however, like Olympians. Their signature “ooh” harmonies that sometimes go on for several measures were always dead-on and crystal clear.

A few songs toward the end of the band’s set, like “The Fake Headlines,” were very rushed and the band nearly lost their rhythm by way of the sometimes overbearing sound of the “hooter” blow-keyboard thingy (that’s what they called it). One more nagging issue I had was with the lighting: The entire band was within the spotlight except for the bassist and drummer who were completely in the dark. Oops.

All in all, The New Pornographer’s 50-minute set was terrific. A perfect balance of songs from each of their three albums with a great live mix, even in Neko’s absence.

Pause. Excitement builds. Seven guitars are set up, as well as a violin, a cello, xylophone, and three keyboards. Belle & Sebastian burst onto the stage to a roaring crowd. Lead singer – and essence and soul of the group – Stuart Murdoch comes out in a dorky black striped blazer which somehow makes him ever cooler (he takes it off a half song into the show). Stuart creates a perfect Chicago-oriented introduction to their performance: “Parking’s a bitch here in Chicago,” he exclaims. He tells the crowd we therefore must have pent-up frustration and energy because of it, and that the group is going to try and make us feel better.

The set begins with an oldie: “Expectations” from debut album Tigermilk, followed by a spattering of nine tracks from their newest album, The Life Pursuit, with fervor and energy that defines the live show experience. New song “Another Sunny Day,” for example, perfectly captures the sound of the song from album to concert, with an additional level of energy that’s all theirs. Stuart dances constantly throughout the show. He loves jumping on speakers, jumping into the crowd (he’s caught by a security guard)… the man loves jumping! The energy he has would make you have a good time even if the band started singing X-Tina covers.

And Stuart loves his audience. He’s frequently talking to us, asking us how we’re doing, asking to have the lights shone on us so he can see us. He loves us! He really loves us (and multiple “I love you” shout-outs to Stuart let him know he’s loved as well)!

Lead guitarist Stevie Jackson is also a terrific performer. “To Be Myself Completely” comes across very passionately, even with the Energizer Bunny dancing behind him. Other highlights of the show include “Piazza, New York Catcher” with its impeccable harmonies and beautiful high notes (although Mr. Murdoch needed a cheat sheet for the lyrics). For the EP track “Lazy Line Painter Jane,” Stuart asks if the woman whose husband emailed the band about his wife singing a song with the band is in the audience. That’s how random and fun he is. Sure enough, the woman is present. She’s pulled on stage to a deafening crowd and proceeds to sing the song with the group for the very first time. The entire room felt her excitement (I’m sure the band was thankful that the girl could actually sing).

I could keep going on about how technically amazing Belle & Sebastian sounded by way of their perfect harmonies and rhythms, layers of sound with stringed instruments, trumpet, additional guitars, and sound effects, and again: their exceedingly high energy level. But the focal point of this show, to just go ahead and sound completely cheesy, was the magic that was created. The connection made between the band and the audience (generated by Stuart) was a truly personal experience for every person present. Between the song requests, dialogue with the crowd, and inviting audience members onstage to sing or dance, it was clear that Belle & Sebastian are doing this for their fans just as much as for themselves. And that is nice to see every once in awhile.

P.S.: Thanks to Karen the security guard for letting me borrow her pen.
www.belleandsebastian.com
www.thenewpornographers.com

Kimberly Rosenbauer

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