Belle & Sebastian, Badly Drawn Boy @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 25/8/2024

Indie-pop perfection!

The pairing of Belle & Sebastian and Badly Drawn Boy was an absolute masterstroke and proved to be one of those shows not to have missed and I would go as far as saying this would be right up there in the top five gigs for me in 2024.

Badly Drawn Boy (aka Damon Gough) is an incredible performer drawing on a career that has spanned some twenty years plus. Hard to believe that this was his first time playing in Adelaide and whilst he might of been in solo mode there was a certain charm that resonated with the near sold out crowd there early to see him. It was a well constructed set list starting with This Is That New Song, Stone On The Water and the very classy The Shining. The stories behind the music were just as entertaining as the songs hearing that Gough felt emotional being so far from home adding how he felt his career went down hill when electrical company Comet used his song All Possibilites in a TV advertisement.

There was also a moment of reflection meeting Belle & Sebastian singer Stuart Murdoch fifteen years ago at a screening of the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home assuming that they would cross paths again but took this tour to reunite them. Not only was it Stuart Murdoch’s birthday but his brother who passed three years. That was a strong theme that ran through his set. A Minor Incident was stellar and the “writer theme tune” where Gough pointed out without being “cheesy” that he wanted to squeeze the words Badly Drawn Boy in to a song being the stand out Something To Talk About. With fifteen minutes Gough said “I’m fucked!” racing against the clock to fit everything in.

Silent Sigh got the crowd clapping and there is no doubt that this was the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening. Born In The UK was a collection of memories of growing up in the 70s and being “pissed about missing Woodstock”. The loops on Once Around The Block was followed by the quip “I invented loops” with a subtle dig at Ed Sheeran and his loop videos “ten minutes with Ed”. Running over time Gough said he didn’t care as it was his brother’s birthday playing the tribute and Strokes cover Someday on piano which was sublime.

The scene was set for this awesome night to continue as Belle & Sebastian took the stage not long after. It has been a long thirteen years since they were last here playing Her Majesty’s Theatre but didn’t take long to get reacquainted with Adelaide fans. Having a sneaky peak at the set list showed a few twists and turns more like a choose your adventure novel with different song options which seemed on reflection dependent on the vibe of crowd and how they were feeling at that point. It was all class opening with The State I Am I followed by I’m A Cuckoo. Unnecessary Drama was described as a “young person’s song” which saw Stuart buggered at song’s end after all the dancing and jumping about.

Thanking the crowd for coming out on “bath night” and took a second to look at all the young people down the front “who weren’t born yet” inferring it had been a long time since they were last here “but who’s counting”. Indie-pop perfection continued with Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying, Give a Little Time and time to “jiggy” with the “prescribed dance move” of swinging one buttock to the next on Sukie in the Graveyard. Only Stuart Murdoch could pull off this dance move! Fantastic harmonies between Stuart and Sarah on I Want the World to Stop then it was time to sing happy birthday to Stuart who broke out in to the lyric “the hills are alive with the sound of music” saying that he liked playing shows on his birthday.

The synth driven Reclaim The Night was fantastic and Stuart did point out that they were trying to guess what songs the crowd will like and whether to go for the “deep cuts”. The dancing shoes for most were well and truly on by the time Simple Things and the iconic The Boy With the Arab Strap rolled around with some very happy fans invited up on stage to dance making for quite the spectacle. As the finish line was near there were a couple of twists to finish the main set on To Be Myself Completely and Judy and the Dream of Horses. Anything from here was a bonus and the cherry on the cake. With plenty of noise the band returned Dirty Dream Number Two and Me and the Major wrapping up one of those shows that you just had to be there.

Live Review By Rob Lyon