Photos courtesy Pabst Theater
Belle and Sebastian and Courtney Barnett hit the Pabst Theater Friday, the former bringing decades of material and veteran status in the indie pop world, and the latter bringing recent success and enthusiastic acclaim for her debut album. Belle and Sebastian have evolved through the years, experimenting with genre and style, and their set included everything from the twee sound they helped popularize to the baroque pop that is now most prevalent in their work. Courtney Barnett, meanwhile, is a relatively new discovery for most listeners, and the attention she’s garnered is more than warranted. Working introspective and engaging lyrics into vibrant yet simple songs, Barnett gracefully creates catchy, memorable choruses with winning melodies and openhearted ease, and live, her powers are on full display.
Truthfully, Courtney Barnett was an opener in timeslot only. The crowd agitated eagerly when she took the stage, flooding the aisles to get a better view. Barnett enjoyed a vocal and generous outpouring of acclaim for her 2015 album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Pairing insightful yet deceptively simple lyricism with a grunge-influenced loud/soft dynamic, Barnett’s songs are absolute gems of reflection and realization. Opening her set with “Dead Fox,” she proceeded to hit all the highs of her album, including the perfectly moody and quietly devastating “Depreston.” When she was given the signal that she only had 10 minutes left, the crowd booed, and a voice shouted “One more hour!,” to which Barnett replied, “You’ll love 10 minutes, then.” She wasn’t wrong—10 minutes with Courtney Barnett is enough to make anyone a believer.
Belle and Sebastian took the stage to a slightly calmer crowd, perhaps indicative of their veteran status. Starting their set with “Nobody’s Empire” from their most recent album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Stuart Murdoch and company proceeded to tour through their extensive catalogue. Highlights like “I’m a Cuckoo,” “Stars of Track and Field” and newer standout “Party Line” were brought to life onstage, lacking nothing—the band’s lineup included a string section, after all. Live, Belle and Sebastian are dazzlingly multi-instrumental, as though an onstage game of musical chairs is going on throughout the set. Guitarist Stevie Jackson lit up while leading the song “Perfect Couples,” a bossa nova-tinged dance tune rendered through a bongo haze, while Murdoch showed off his vocals on the lush, dramatic “Lord Anthony.”
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While much of their catalogue has a distinct sound, the set never lulled, due in no small part to their undeniable charm. Between chatting up the crowd good naturedly between songs and amiably pulling a small army of concertgoers on stage to dance during “The Boy With the Arab Strap,” Belle and Sebastian felt like veterans, yes, but happy veterans—a band that’s glad to be exactly where they are.
