Belle & Sebastian - Paradiso, 8 May

The show was almost a week ago, but never mind. I had a great time, my 3rd time seeing Belle & Sebastian after what felt like ages of not being able to see them live in the first few years I was a fan because they didn't tour to the US very often, and when they did they never came to the West Coast, or at least not to the Portland area. So all 3 times I've seen them have been in the Netherlands.

It was a bit weird getting to Paradiso... Around the same time as the show, out on the Leidseplein, there was a celebration for the Ajax football team winning some cup, and things were all blocked off and such. We had to walk from a few streets over and then avoid the mess on the plein. Cops were everywhere, next to Paradiso there were at least 8 mounted police hanging out, and the street in front of the venue was lined with riot police vans. The doors for the show weren't open yet, so we got in line and stood watching the riot police gearing up and having a smoke and all that. Plus there were tons of Ajax fans streaming towards the plein which was being serenaded by some Dutch singer. Apparently the celebrations didn't go all too smoothly and there was a bit of rioting, but by the time we got out of Paradiso, it was all over, except for broken bottles everywhere on the ground. It's just weird how oblivious we were to what was going on just up the road.

There was an opening band, but I don't even feel like mentioning their name because they were so crap. Their songs were too long and boring; I saw many people around me openly yawning while they were playing.

B&S came out later than expected, so we were definitely happy to see them after a long wait in a warm hall, and they straight off played an oldie, Expectations. The setlist was a great mix of old and new, which I think would please anyone, no matter how much of their stuff you knew. Some other old stuff they played: She's Losing It, Electronic Renaissance, Dog on Wheels, Fox in the Snow, The State I'm In, Jonathan David, Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner, and Boy with the Arab Strap. I unfortunately had only listened to the new album once before seeing them, but I could still recognize the new songs, like Blues Are Still Blue, Funny Little Frog, and Sukie in the Graveyard.

The audience was pretty good overall, appreciative of both old and new songs, but I don't think I'll ever get Dutch people at shows. In this case, I would look around every once in awhile to see how much people seemed to be into things, and even though we were near the front, not many people were dancing much, though they would clap and cheer plenty when the song was over. I just didn't get it. Like the two girls behind us, they seemed excited to be there before the band came out, they were all counting down the minutes until the time when they were supposed to start, but then they didn't move much during the songs. I dunno, maybe they aren't much into dancing about, but it seems so weird to just stand there, not moving at all. And what was weirder as I looked around was that all of the people really into things and dancing were all guys, with a couple of exceptions. Bit rare. There was even one guy up in the balcony dancing as much as he could while sitting in a chair, bouncing around and tapping his feet. There's the energy I want to see...

Then there's overdoing it, especially in the case of being drunk, as were two guys who ended up near us on our right side. One of them was a bit more calm, but the other one was being so stereotypically drunk: singing at the top of his lungs, stumbling around all over the place while holding on to the other guy, yelling out nonsense between songs. It was really annoying and I tried my best to ignore him and watch the stage, but it was hard when he kept stumbling in our direction, though O was between me and him. Once between songs, Stuart was asking for a cigarette, even though he dosn't smoke, and some people at the front rushed to provide him with one. The drunk guy then threw his mostly empty pack on stage, which the band appreciated. Later though, during the encore, the idiot asked for the pack back, since the band wasn't smoking them. Cheap bastard. I did make me laugh though when the drunk guy was asking around in the crowd for a light and, out of about 20 people he asked, no one had one. I guess B&S fans aren't much for smoking.

The band though was awesome, Stevie is always fun to watch, he looks rather pissed off, but I think it's all an act. He has such a 60s aura; he was dressed in a older-style suit, with black-framed glasses, and had a old-fashioned way even of playing the guitar. Also great were his moves during Electronic Renaissance, where he traded his guitar for a little toy instrument of some sort, and he'd make all these Austin Powers-like poses which just made me smile. O caught one of Stevie's poses here.

During the last part of the show, O was trying to find a good moment to try to get a note to the stage mentioning that he'd like to meet the band afterwards for just a couple of minutes for a photo project he is trying to start. He'd already folded the note into a paper airplane to fly to the stage. We kept waiting for a good moment, but he didn't finally throw the paper airplane at the stage until his last possible chance, as the band was giving a bow at the end of the encore before leaving for good. Fortunately it flew fast and straight and landed where Sarah saw it and picked it up. She read it with a curious look on her face, and then looked out into the crowd to figure out where it'd come from (O said in the note to look for the guy wearing a panda on his shirt). Then Sarah showed the note to Stuart who read it and laughed, before they left the note on a keyboard and headed off stage. We waited around awhile after the show to see if any band members would come out, but none did. Oh well, at least they saw the note. Maybe we'll be more lucky with the Decemberists coming up this Thursday.