Belle & Sebastian - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (Portland, OR; Oct. 19, 2010)

The price of twee has risen significantly in the past four years. When Belle & Sebastian last came to town, it cost $26 to see them play an exuberant show at the Roseland with the New Pornographers. With songs appearing on several major film soundtracks, the band is now demanding upwards of $50 to see them at the current venue. This inflation has alienated much of their audience and led to recent newspaper ads proclaiming that great seats are still available for what should have been a sold-out show. Musical gentrification is a curious thing.

There is a preponderance of porkpie hats in the audience, as well as ironic beards, and one or two empty seats dot each row. The room smells slightly of body odor and peppermint, and people sip overpriced wine from tiny lidded cups. As a sign of the band’s growing popularity and critical acclaim within the music industry, REM’s Peter Buck is spotted hovering near the entryway. Though their sound oscillates between mellow and peppy and doesn’t necessitate mosh pits or crowd surfing, I can’t shake the feeling that the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall is an inappropriate setting for this band. Stuffy employees accustomed to opera-goers herd us to our assigned seats, and the atmosphere is reminiscent of my childhood days spent crammed into itchy dresses to see musical theatre. Sitting down at a pop concert, no matter the performer, just seems inherently wrong.

In the darkened auditorium, figures appear. Sarah Martin, the band’s violinist and sole female member, sits casually on the stage floor. She is joined by the rest of the band, and they begin with “Stars of Track and Field.” The song is mellow and low-energy, inspiring little movement in the crowd except a slight swaying in the front two rows. Lead singer Stuart Murdoch keeps his setlist in a spiral-bound notebook at his feet, and dances about in the unrestricted stage area while the rest of us languish in our seats. Onstage is a sea of striped shirts and tight slacks, as if the members were given official Portland uniforms prior to performing.

Seeing Belle & Sebastian in this setting causes a strange sense of distance, like we are watching a movie rather than a live performance. Though the orchestra-sized band has numerous members and is joined by several backup violinists, individual instruments are difficult to pick out of the songs. At first I think they are using a backing track until they surprise me with a slowed-down version of “Piazza New York Catcher,” one of my favorites. Murdoch kneels on the stage as he sings, “Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll sail around the world/ I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl.” Toes have started tapping, and four people who can’t take it anymore have migrated to the aisles to dance. 

After several classics from their repertoire, the band begins “I’m Not Living in the Real World,” a song from their nauseatingly-titled latest album, Write About Love. They encourage the audience to sing along through call-and-response, and somehow obtain a lovely melody from the hundreds of attendees. A few older songs follow, and they give us “I Want the World to Stop,” another from the new release. Unfortunately it’s sung at too high a pitch, and the members are slightly off-key and out of sync. They must be less familiar with its intricacies. Aside from this single misstep, the songs are tight and the many instruments blend together richly. 

During a pause between songs, Murdoch tells a joke to illustrate the difference between Portlanders and Glaswegians, which he observed earlier in the day. The punchline is the Portlanders would not piss in the reservoir, because it supplies our water, whereas the Glaswegians would do it for this very reason. I love it when bands tell jokes onstage; it humanizes them. Throughout the next song, “Sukie in the Graveyard,” two audience members behind me are loudly discussing the season finale of True Blood, presumably reminded by the song’s title. This is the trouble with assigned seating. One cannot move to a different area when annoyed by obnoxious attendees. One can only turn around and glare.

Someone yells that he’d prefer to be dancing. Murdoch says to give them two more songs before the dance tunes will appear. Belle & Sebastian, despite their deep catalog of danceable songs, perform subtly and almost mechanically in contrast with their jumping and shaking lead singer. True to his word, he finishes the songs and plays “Mayfly” to inject some energy into the sleepy room. Audience members shift in their seats, wanting to dance but unsure if they’re allowed. The stage is aglow with orange lights and fog machines, and Murdoch decides to invite the wannabe dancer, along with several others, onto the stage for a dance party during “I Didn’t See it Coming” and the evening’s standout number, “The Boy with the Arab Strap.” The joyfully rhythmless revelers bounce around onstage like extras in a Charlie Brown cartoon, and the audience finally rises to dance to these infectious songs in the limited space between the rows.

Once the dance party is over, Murdoch pauses to distribute medals to the group of 10 or so movers and shakers before sending them back to their seats. The band begins “If You Find Yourself Caught in Love,” and Murdoch thrills the chair-bound crowd by running up and down the aisles as he sings. They end the mostly subdued set with “Sleep the Clock Around,” and the four backup violinists remain seated onstage while we await the obligatory encore. Guitarist Stevie Jackson tells us he will be playing a tale of “love and not love in Scotland in the Summer,” which turns out to be “Another Sunny Day.” Audience members leap back out of their seats to dance once more. For a band with such a deep catalog, their performance is shaping up to be far too short. For the last song, “Legal Man,” Murdoch dons an electric guitar and sings for us to, “get out of the office and into the springtime.” If only we could, Stuart, but at least we have Belle & Sebastian to provide the melody for those daydreams. 

DOWNLOAD: Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap (MP3) or Follow us for more Belle & Sebastian MP3s (Twitter)

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