LAist: Concert Review: Belle & Sebastian w/ LA Phil @ Hollywood Bowl 7/6/06

Tawny Proust

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 13:37:06 -0800

strike, go back to art school you douchebag.

Josh Strike

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:31:59 -0800

I didn't write my own review of the show because I don't have much to say about the music. I was there, too...I've loved Belle and Sebastian since "Boy with the Arab Strap" and likewise don't care much for anything they've done from "Waking Up to Us" onward. But my experience at the show had both little and everything to do with the music; it was a drug-fueled experience of sheer, screaming terror, from which I'm still trying to recover. I was really looking forward to it, too. But as I never quite expected to break where I've been bent so many times before, the horrors I experienced through most of the show shattered something in me. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to listen to Belle and Sebastian again. I believe it was something about the Bowl itself that caused these vibes. People were dancing in the aisles; you couldn't walk anywhere; it should have been happy, right? But there were all these old people as well, season ticket holders, a very strange mix of a crowd; maybe it was just shocking that there should be so many people at a B&S concert at all...maybe it was just how mainstream this band has finally become. Maybe their new songs aren't very good. But I also saw something insidious and dishonest about the way Stuart skipped around the stage. I've seen him perform before; I know he's not a naturally skippy person. He was skipping for effect, in that scarf of his. The sham was unbearable. And all blown up on the big screens, and all the people watching the screens, like some kind of pep rally. And the lyrics -- I've listened to Belle and Sebastian's lyrics a million times before, but I've never heard what I heard this time; they were telling these people to be depressed, to go home and shut up. Every use of the word "you" was dripping with antipathy toward the crowd, or so it seemed to me. It was almost like he Stuart was a stranger from another planet having a laugh at this throng of earthbound morons. Yes; there were aliens among us. The band was eating our souls; sucking huge amounts of energy out of the crowd and giving back nothing but pouty, half-hearted laments. Without wanting to or meaning to, I realized at this show that all pop music is propaganda designed to numb peoples' minds, all music fans are idiots, and everything that we take for granted as enjoyable about reality is a lie covering up an unspeakable crawling nightmare that's just below the surface, and hidden in all the places between the things that we see and touch.

Josh Strike

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:28:07 -0800

Joycelyn

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:01:34 -0800

Uh Ali, did you have a memory lapse? For the record...on the 6th, they only played ONE off of "Life Pursuit": "Sukie in the Graveyard". Since when does one song in an entire setlist constitute "a bunch?" The Bowl concert was heavier on the earlier albums, unlike the previous LA show at the Wiltern in which B& S played many off of "The Life Pursuit"

smo

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:20:36 -0800

Ali McCarthy nailed the concert right on its head! I had the same mixed feelings (they had brought me through so much) and abivalence towards seeing them....however, the show was amazing!

Megan

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:44:27 -0800

awesome article!! Makes me wish I could have been in those mountains.. drinking that wine.. hearing that music. :( Soon enough!