Belle and Sebastian in Brooklyn

The rain held off for Belle and Sebastian's first stop in the US Thursday night in Brooklyn. Taking place at the Williamsburg Waterfront in a paved lot that overlooks the East River, the show was surprisingly packed for such dreary conditions in an outside venue. Indeed, earlier, people had been selling tickets for the show at half price on Craigslist. But there a couple thousand of us were, ready to hear Belle and Sebastian at their first live North American performance in four years. What was not surprising was that the show was packed with older people--by which I mean not in their twenties. This wasn't too surprising because Belle and Sebastian has been around since the 1990s.

These older concertgoers had a good time rocking to Teenage Fanclub, the opening act. Sounding like a classic rock band straight from the Seventies, the Scottish band crooned out conventional, yet pretty sounding love songs. "I don't need much when I still have thee," to a warming effect as the winds howled behind them.

Soon, Belle and Sebastian took the stage to raucous cheers. Unfortunately, the audience was kind of subdued by the song, "I Didn't See it Coming," from their new album "Belle and Sebastian Write About Love," which doesn't come out for another week in the States. (Due to some unfortunate paving, the floor space of the Williamsburg Waterfront is kind of slanted away from the stage, rendering it a challenge for me to see throughout the show. But this is no reflection on Belle and Sebastian). Luckily, the band made it up to us by following the new song with the more familiar "I'm a Cuckoo." We were relieved to discover that the rest of the set consisted mostly of songs from "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" and "If You're Feeling Sinister," their two most popular albums. They also threw in "The Boy with the Arab Strap," honoring a request, as well as a b-side from "Push Barman to Open New Wounds." Belle and Sebastian's live versions of many of their songs also added a bit extra. "Lord Anthony" departed the most from its album version as Murdoch slowed down the pauses in the song even more to build tension. The contrast between the acoustic beginning and the drum-infused ending truly revealed the energy of the song. The sound mix overall was perfection, allowing us to hear Stuart Murdoch sing his own lyrics even through the heavy winds.

Although they played eighteen songs total, the concert lasted nearly two hours because Belle and Sebastian expertly filled some time with well-chosen dialoguing. At one point, the guitarist Stevie Jackson, took the time to teach us some vocals of "I'm Not Living in the Real World." Later, the band took a break to throw toy footballs to children who were dragged to the concert by their parents.

Finally, Belle and Sebastian closed with a short encore consisting of two songs from "If You're Feeling Sinister." While the concert provided a good sampling of songs from the new album, it was more successful at invoking the first time you discovered Belle and Sebastian and fell in love with them.