Konzerte » Nachlesen » Belle And Sebastian

Ramesh Srivastava hat sich zum Zürich OpenAir begeben um seine Lieblingsband und Freunde von Belle and Sebastian auf einem ihrer Konzerte zu besuchen. Er war bis vor kurzem Sänger und Mastermind der Band Voxtrot, derzeit befindet er sich in Berlin und arbeitet an Material für sein Solodebut.

The Zurich Openair Festival is perhaps the muddiest festival I have ever been to, which is saying a lot, considering the meteorological reputation of such events.  My friend, painter Lucy Stein and I have been in Zurich for two days, and thus far, we have been, by all accounts, very good tourists.  We have been to the Kunsthaus Museum.  We have seen the geode-inlaid stained glass windows of the Grossmunster.  We have saddled round the lake to one of my spiritual homing points-the Le Corbusier house, and we have even made time for a purely platonic dalliance with several Dominican dancers in Zurich’s red light district.

This new scene (the festival one) couldn’t be more different.  For me, Zurich is a kept jewel, rich in both beauty and little silver coins, unchanging and solid like some antiquated, luxurious material, perhaps like ivory.  I have been imagining the festival (zurichopenair.ch)  will continue very much in this lavish tradition, but upon arrival I am immediately thrust into a realm of chaos and quicksand, somewhat reminiscent of Waterworld.  Thin wooden planks provide the only form of transport between vast, hungry mud oceans, and in effect, festival-goers are reduced to ants, trailing one another in single file.

After much maneuvering, Lucy and I reach the stage on which Belle and Sebastian will be playing.  To say I am a “super-fan” would be somewhat of an understatement.  Having already inadvertently followed the band to Glasgow (and staying for three years), my fandom has now led brought me to Zurich, which, let’s face it, is not exactly a budget destination.  The only difference is that, at this stage, I have the good fortune of being quite a good friend of several of the band members, making my access into Fan Babylon somewhat easier.  A journey such as this one to Zurich requires a partner stocked with equal obsession, and in Lucy I have found my match.  During the previous two days, we have collectively hummed, recited, reminisced upon, and generally exhausted every song in the Belle and Sebastian catalogue, including side projects and rarities. 

Waiting in the audience, I regret to confess, I feel a slight pang of irritation.  For the past five years, I have been touring off and on with my own band, Voxtrot, and during that time I have become very accustomed to being on the “other side of the looking glass.”  Now that I am in between active musical projects, there is some notion of failure, that I have left my gilded seat in the backstage and am now standing, caked with mud, alongside the best of them, glinting nervously towards the side of the stage, hoping for the blessed emergence of my musical saviors. 

The instant that said saviors do in fact appear, all negative notions of superiority and disappointment dissolve and I am instantaneously thrust back into my teenage mirth.  They say that, when people fall in love, we produce chemicals within that brain that cause us to behave irrationally, and over time, these chemicals decrease in presence, bringing us back to our original, dismal pragmatism.  In this musical moment, I am defying science, for every rational thought (particularly those pertaining to cold, trench foot, the need to urinate, and general bodily discomfort) has left the building. Throughout the entirety of the set, Lucy and I are bopping in unison and successfully mouthing every lyric, spoken like true hymns.  As the Stuart, the man himself onstage says, it’s as though “I was a kid again.” 

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