I saw Belle & Sebastian in Boston last night, and it was lots of fun. A few brief recollections. (Philosophical content will return to the site shortly.)

• For a while I couldn’t remember which city I was in, but when someone shouted out “Yankees Suck”, I knew immediately where I was. Bostonians can be so helpful in that respect sometimes. (I know it doesn’t make much sense at a concert, but it doesn’t make much sense at a Red Sox / Mariners game either, and what chant do you think you hear then?)
• For a 10-piece outfit, as they were last night, Belle & Sebastian sure do multi-task. Sarah Martin played 4 different instruments and most of the others did some doubling up. Maybe if they had 30 people they could all have defined roles. I’m glad they never learned, or at least never agreed with, orthodox division of labour principles.
• The band tried a couple of songs from Storytelling and the crowd had basically no positive response at all. I think they should be in the business of forgetting that whole thing ever happened.
• I’m a bit worried about how far this “discover your inner 80s” thing is going. They opened with a note perfect version of A New England, complete with guitar played just the way Billy played it before he could play guitar. And the version of Stay Loose was even more synth-rock than the album version. Hopefully it’s just a phase they are going through. And hopefully it doesn’t last as long as the first time the world had an 80s phase.
• Hearing I’m a Cuckoo reminded me that while driving across rural Ontario the other weekend I thought “I see a wilderness for you and me, punctuated by philosophy” would make a good motto for the site. Perhaps that’s a little negative though. If it’s to be a Belle & Sebastian line, I think the site’s motto should be “Nobody writes them like they used to so it may as well be me.” It isn’t really true when I say it, but then it wasn’t true when Stuart Murdoch wrote it either, and it certainly sounds good as a motto.