Belle and Sebastian and Beachwood Sparks

Belle & Sebastian have enjoyed one of the most musically fascinating evolutions of any rock and pop band in recent memory. Beginning as a gentle, multi-instrumental folk pop band in the 1990s, the band's shows could sometimes have an almost church-like atmosphere of quiet.

Over the past decade, however, the band has built on its own sound (without ever abandoning its roots), morphing over time into a vibrant, powerful, soulful, and downright playful group of performers.

The band, increasingly influenced by singer and songwriter Stuart Murdoch's creative genius, are heading back on the road this year for the first time in a few years, in advance of their latest record. While in concert they'll certainly take out the woodwinds and fiddles to perform audience favorites like “Stars Of Track And Field” and “Like Dylan In The Movies”, the real joy kicks in on newer material. Shot through with an almost Motown-like bounce, the audience is likely to be out of their seats and turning the show into a disarmingly sweet indie rock dance party.

At the center of it all in concert is Murdoch. In front of a band that can sometimes swell to as many as a dozen members, it seems sometimes as if he's leading an orchestra more than a pop group. Affable and funny, Stuart engages the audience in charmingly playful banter that that helps make even festival shows in front of tens of thousands feel like a rollicking Scottish house party.

If you’ve not heard Beachwood Sparks’ cover of Sade’s ‘By Your Side’ then you’ve missed out on one of the all-time great cover versions. Keeping the soul of the original, the Los Angeles band added their own personal golden country touch to make it something that bit different – it remained, however, a complete tear jerker. That cover has followed the band around like a bad smell, though, meaning their own work and fine back catalogue has been overlooked in favour of people wanting to hear someone else’s song (think Futureheads and ‘Hounds of Love’), and that’s a damn shame. Beachwood Sparks’ best album is 2001’s Once We Were Trees, a languid collection of psychedelic pop and country, unfussy but utterly loveable. It was also their last record until 2012’s The Tarnished Gold and at the moment it seems the band, formed by Brent Rademaker and Christopher Gunst, might be preparing for another album. If that happens, then you’ll get to see these guys do their thing live; it’s an unhurried and genial experience where you’ll no doubt hear ‘By Your Side’ as long as you don’t holler for it right from the moment the show starts. You might also hear the sprightly trad country of ‘You Take the Gold’, complete with four part harmonies, plus faithful renditions of ‘Desert Skies’ and the chiming ‘Sparks Fly Again’. Depending on the touring line-up, Rademaker and Gunst could be helped out by fellow Californians and dear friends Neal Casal and “Farmer” Dave Scher, who plays a mean lap steel guitar. If anything, it’s that keening sound that will be the abiding memory of a Beachwood Sparks show.