Tracy & the Plastics, Belle & Sebastian

Cultural Event #5

Last year about this time, the Walker Art Center was holding its Grand Opening celebration. All sorts of cool people attended - like crazy Bjork and her crazy husband Matthew Barney - and so did I. Make no mistake, I am not cool. But I happen to have a few cool friends who had invites to the party, so I got to go along. The highlight of the evening was a performance by Tracy and The Plastics. Tracy sings live, while a video of her "bandmates" plays behind her. She carries on conversations with them (partially scripted, partially improvised), while also singing a few tunes. The whole performance was hilarious and clever, with a storyline that followed the music. So when I saw that she was playing another gig in the Twin Cities, I knew I had to go especially because Tracy is only playing a couple more shows before she calls it quits. Unfortunately, this show wasn't half as good as the Walker show. The crowd was drunk and rowdy, which Tracy seemed to enjoy, but the performance suffered from the interruptions. There didn't seem to be much of a storyline, so the video seemed to have little to do with the live performance. Eh, for six bucks, it was still a good time.

Cultural Event #6

Time was, I'd see about two concerts a year, so two in one week is pretty intense. Bud's awesome landlord got us tickets (7th row, center) for the sold-out Belle and Sebastian show Sunday night. As a casual fan of the band (i.e., I've had many friends who were big fans and therefore I've been exposed to the music, but never sought it out on my own), I didn't have any expectations for this show. Happily, it was one of the best I've seen since I've been here. I wish it hadn't taken the repressed Minnesota crowd so long to get into it (the frontman had to sort of give permission for people to stand up), but it hardly mattered. And I saw a bunch of people I recognized from Madison - really the whole crowd looked like they probably matriculated from the good ol' UW. Also, the Scottish accent is pretty hot, even on a little waif.