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Greek Theatre August 15, 2003 Review by Jake Thomas Ah, what a lovely night to be outside at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, listening to the lovely pop sounds of Belle & Sebastian. Other than the outrageous cost of the tickets and the parking, there ain’t a damn thing I can say about this show. The total show length was probably around two hours, but I didn’t time it or nothing. Lots of classics interspersed with plenty of new songs and comical stories about going to massage parlors and what not. I really like what I heard with the new songs for the most part, very upbeat with multiple-part harmonies; they managed to make a departure from their previous sound and arrangement style somewhat, without compromising what you come to expect when you hear a B&S song. At times there was near a dozen people on the stage, as they had brought a string quartet with them and had plenty of other folks noodling on this or that to the desired effect. Not only did the band sound great, but the sound system complimented it – it was that perfect amount of loudness where you don’t need earplugs but you hear everything and drown out chatter at the same time. Not that there was a lot of talking mind you; everyone seemed pretty rapt the entire performance, or maybe it was just me and I was tuning all of them out. Just when I think I’m over Belle and Sebastian, they go and put on a show like this and just suck me back in…and now I can’t stop listening to ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ for the life of me. ©2003 playinginfog.com |