Stars of Track & Field

A couple of weeks ago now I had the good fortune to go see Belle and Sebastian performing at Avalon. Not only was the concert excellent, but B&S managed to play more songs suited to a track meet than the organizers of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games managed to play in an entire night (see below for a rant on this topic.) Opening with "Stars of Track and Field", they went on to "The Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner" a few songs later. I'm still looking for clues as to why they have so many running-related songs, although lead singer Stuart Murdoch does have something of the lean and hungry look of a distance runner.

The crowd at Avalon left something to be desired, especially since the sound engineer had done a brilliant job of making the music clear rather than deafening, thus enabling the rude and clueless to carry on conversations over the top of the band. Murdoch handled this reasonably well: early in the show, a fan who must have been either drunk or possessing an overdeveloped sense of irony yelled "Rock and Roll" to which Stuart replied "You would think so, yes" in his inimitable quiet Scottish voice. But why anyone would pay $35 to talk over a band is a mystery to me.

Opening for Belle and Sebastian were The New Pornographers who did an excellent job. While listening to their albums can sometimes get a bit repetitious, their live performance was more diverse and full of energy.

A couple of days later, Stuart Murdoch broke with tradition and gave an interview to Terry Gross on Fresh Air - the show is archived here.

Here is a copy of the title song of this post, with which the concert at Avalon opened. The full album from which it comes, shown below, is one of my all time favorites - not a dud track on it. I don't care what DJ Durutti says about my taste.




Stars of Track and Field - Belle and Sebastian

Finally, a tidbit from the New Yorker's listings:

"March 1: South Boston’s Dropkick Murphys, favorites of the thick-necked, tattooed set, play testosterone-rich punk rock with Irish roots. The following nights, March 2-3, expect a sweater-and-glasses-wearing crowd for the retro sounds of Scotland’s Belle and Sebastian. Let’s hope the two groups of fans don’t meet."

Fortunately that was in New York. I saw them in Boston and avoided any run-ins with the Dropkick Murphy's fans. And I don't wear glasses.