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The Warfield April 30, 2004 Review by Jake Thomas I was so excited for Vetiver when I found out they had landed the opening gig for heavyweights Belle & Sebastian – great local band done well or something along those lines. The music of these two bands certainly have a similar feel to them on a base level – very mellow, introspective, and all that sort of business. I could really imagine them going over well with the Belle & Sebastian crowd, but they seemed to be having nothing of it – a shame really, cause Vetiver sounded great to me, as always. They were aided on stage by a fourth member known as “Soft Creamy Brick”, who I’m going to assume was Devendra Barnhart (but I can’t be for sure since he was wearing a hooded cape/throw rug thing the entire time he was on stage). I’m really eager to get their new album, as it either just came out or comes out very soon; based on the demos and live material I’ve heard it should be fantastic. And I’m still patiently holding out for that Raymond Brake reunion, so if anyone hears anything make sure and let me know. I’ve seen Belle & Sebastian a few times now, so I pretty much knew what to expect – lots of people in the band, string section, Stuart’s dancing, funny banter between songs; and it delivered on all of those measures. I don’t have any complaints about the show as a whole, other than that I would have liked to hear more of the older material – typical complaint from a long time fan, I know. They did play “Keep Me Away from Here, I’m Dying”, my very favorite song of theirs (as the final song of the encore), so I can’t complain too much. But what made this show especially enjoyable, was their cover of the Velvet Underground’s “I’ll be your Mirror”, completely off the cuff. Apparently, someone in the audience, named Nikon I think, let Stuart know that it was his/her birthday (it was hard to tell exactly what was going on from where I was, but that was the gist of it all). In response, Stevie started playing this song, flubbing a bit of the lyrics at first, out of the blue – and then the rest of the band joined in, just sorta going with the flow of it all. It was a great moment I thought, and one I’ll probably remember for a long time when I think about B&S. Additionally, as a quick side note, someone in the crowd suggested that the band cover Morrissey; Stuart’s response was “I’d like to cover Morrissey – cover him with a blanket!” which brought plenty of laughter from the crowd. Now I still love Morrissey like he was one of my relatives, but that was just too funny. --- Read our previous Belle & Sebastian review: August 15, 2003 @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA Check out our previous Vetiver experiences: Review: February 18, 2003 @ Café DuNord Review & Photos: November 8, 2002 @ Hemlock Tavern - PiF Presents ©2004 playinginfog.com |