Last night Jorn and I went to the Belle & Sebastian show at the Avalon. Overall it was a really good show. Opening band was the New Pornographers, whom I had never heard before, but they were pretty good and cute and stuff. They were already playing when we arrived shortly after 8pm, so we didn't get to see their full set. One lyric I actually heard and remembered was "I sang my madrigal--and it was magical." Any band that has the word "madrigal" in the lyrics is generally okay by me, so I'm going to see about downloading some tracks. Didn't take any pictures because we were pretty far back and there were a lot of tall people standing in front of us. Also standing in front of us was a chick dancing all around, which was annoying because the club was seriously packed, we were shoulder-to-shoulder and she's all thrashing about? Settle down, honey, bop in place like everybody else. Also annoying was the fact that part of her dance routine was pulling her hair up in a ponytail, then pulling it out, shaking the hair out, and pulling it back up again. So her arms were all over, and people were having to dodge, and then when she did get the hair pulled back the girl in front of me near got smacked in the face with the madly swinging ponytail. Have some consideration, chica. She reminded me of Kari in a big way, though, so I didn't mind her antics too much.
Belle & Sebastian came on around 9:45. By this point Jorn and I had worked our way forward in the crowd, and we were standing to the right of the stage, same basic place we stood for the Calexico/Iron & Wine show, next to the (low flat thing you can sit on). There were already people sitting on it, unfortunately. I of course immediately noticed that if one of the girls sitting down would move her coat to be in the center of the bench rather than on the edge, then there would be room for another person to sit. Also the four people sitting next to us were taking up space that could have sat five or six people. These observations continued to bother me for the duration of the show, because I'm a bitch like that and I wanted to sit down but I'd rather get all pissy than just ask someone I don't know to scoot over.
Anyway! The band! They were really cute! With their little British accents and stuff, and the singer frolicking about all gay and adorable. (Mindy would have liked the show.) They played mostly songs from the new album, I think, which I haven't heard too many times, but most of the songs sounded at least familiar. Also they played some tracks off of If You're Feeling Sinister, which was an album I listened to obsessively back when I lived in Greensboro, so I knew all the words. They sounded good and got involved with the crowd, taking requests, asking us what we were thinking about (mashed potatoes, apparently, and wondering if we can have the singer's shirt). At one point the singer yells, "Hey you fuckers on the balcony, wake the fuck up!" midsong. The people on the balcony all looked really startled, it was awesome.
( Some pictures )So yeah, they were really good. But since I'm a total weakling old lady, I couldn't take standing there for the whole show. I did my yoga chair pose (sans arms) a few times, which helped, I guess increasing circulation in my legs, but after a while I just wanted to sit down. I felt claustrophic and I really couldn't adjust my position effectively to make it better: Jorn was standing in front of me, there was a chick right at my left shoulder, and to my right was the bench thing and some guy's legs, and people behind me too. If I moved one way I'd step on the guy's foot and if the other way I'd shove that chick, so I was sort of standing sideways for a while, which sucked because every time I shifted my weight I'd bump one of them. Also my dinner wasn't sitting spectacularly well and I was hella thirsty, and all that combined made me feel sick, so a few songs from the end I left my spot and went to the back. I discovered that are couches in the ladies room, which is good to know, but the problem with this club is that there's nowhere to sit and get some air where you can still hear the band--the ladies room isn't too bad but then someone uses the hand drier, which is apparently run by a large, loud nuclear generator that drowns out any other sounds. People can't even talk in the ladies room when hands are being dried. I tried sitting on the floor in the entryway for a bit, but the security guy got all up in my business so I had to stand up, and then my cell phone died so I couldn't text Jorn and find out when he wanted to leave, which meant I couldn't go sit in the ladies room because I had to make sure I spotted him when he did leave. Which was after the second song in the encore, of course. And I was fine with staying for the whole show, because they were really good, but the situation just frustrated me. We all know how well I deal with being uncomfortable and helpless (ever played the game The Sims? I felt like my comfort meter was all the way in the red).
All hipsters look alike after a while.
They played "Judy and the Dream of Horses", which is my very favorite B&S song.
It's not February anymore!!! Hooray!!!
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