Belly Setlist

King (Re-sequenced)

Puberty
Now They’ll Sleep
Untitled and Unsung
Red
Seal My Fate
L’il Ennio
Silverfish
The Bees
King
Super-Connected
Judas My Heart
— Set 2 —

Low Red Moon
Gepetto
Slow Dog
Human Child
Spaceman
Dusted
Feed the Tree
Shiny One
Are You Experienced? (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
— Encore —
Thief
Full Moon, Empty Heart

Tour Dates

Nov 11 Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, MN

Nov 12 Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, MN

Nov 28 Paradise Rock Club, Boston MA
Dec 10 Mohawk, Austin, TX
Dec 11 Granada Theater, Dallas TX
Dec 12 Oriental Theater, Denver CO
Dec 14 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN

As I’m sure you know, ‘90s bands have been making the rounds, Everclear, Pixies, Weezer, Breeders, Garbage. Well, thank whatever higher power you believe in for Belly joining the party to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of their sophomore album King (Reprise records 1995). They have been on the road for about two months with thirteen shows in the US and 8 in the UK. Not a bad little autumn. Lucky for the Twin Cities two of those US shows, both sold out (and the only city to get two shows – I see you Twin Cities), were at the Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the newly-ish (2018) renovated theater, you really should. They play host to movies, stand-up, MOTH story slams, and, of course, music. It’s a fun, intimate venue with nice custom craft cocktails.

Hanging out in the lobby beforehand, I noticed that the crowd was ~90%, what appeared to be, original Belly fans, so in their 50s and older. Despite easily passing for mid-40s, I fit right in. I overheard quite a bit of reminiscing about Belly shows from the ‘90s and even encountered one group of guys who was at the same 1993 show at the Riv in Chicago where Radiohead opened that I was at with my buddy Josh. You remember Josh, we were college roommates, and we went to the Fazerdaze show together back in September. Trust me, you would remember him if you saw him.

On to the show, Belly took to the stage a couple minutes past 7:30 to (if I’m being honest) a subdued response. While the show was sold out, the capacity of the theater is only ~350 and the aforementioned crowd is old (and maybe not regular concert goers?), so I wasn’t surprised by the quieter response. Continuing with honesty (you know, because I usually just lie to your face), I was a little nervous. Belly is one of my favorite bands, certainly on my Mt. Rushmore, and Tanya Donelly, in particular, is an almost mythical figure for me. So, I was worried I would be disappointed; it’s a tall task to live up to my expectations (just ask my children). They opened with “Puberty”, the first track off of King, and, again, continuing with honesty – it was a bit shaky – and my nervousness increased. However, Gail Greenwood, basis extraordinaire and source of endless energy, did an excellent job of chatting up the crowd and getting us involved. By the time, we got to the third song “Untitled and Unsung”, the crowd (and Belly) was loosening up, and the fourth song “Red” had the show on track with the crowd (finally) on its feet and moving like only suburban white folks in their 50s and beyond can move. The opening lyrics to Red, “You look tired, you look older than your mother”, felt a little on the nose for this crowd. I don’t know that anyone else noticed. They played King in its entirety, although not in the track order on the album. The first set ended with “Judas My Heart”, which also closes the album and has my favorite lyrics from a Belly song, “Where I live, There’s this lady who walks everywhere on her hands, because she doesn’t trust where her feet want to take her”. Sounds like a real problem-solver to me.

Set two was comprised of B-sides and hits from Star, Belly’s debut album released on Reprise records in February of 1993. See full set list over yonder to the right (or above if you’re reading on your phone). They kicked it off with “Low Red Moon”, accompanied by nice AV effects (see picture below). I think Belly has a very recognizable esthetic, which was nicely captured on the screen behind them throughout the show. Maybe I was just paying more attention, but I think the second set AV effects were a bit more compelling. The crowd was really amped up for the second set and the energy felt good. For you regular readers, you know that I struggle with “collecting” shows vs being present and getting lost in them. By the end of the second set, I was starting to move into a feeling of being present and the second set really kicked me over the edge into getting lost in the show. I wasn’t thinking about work or the yard work I still needed to get done; I was just enjoying the show. We learned about halfway through the set that Tanya was a bit under the weather when Gail applauded her efforts. This resulted in Tanya speaking for the first time and comparing her voice to (I think) Brenda Vacarro. Listen to the clip I linked to and you’ll get a sense of what she sounded like. This probably explains why she didn’t speak during the show. Luckily Gail was more than up for filling that void. It’s amazing to me that she was able to perform the way she did with her voice sounding the way it did when she spoke – just adds to her mythical status for me. Now that I think about it, when I saw Belly perform at the Vic in Chicago in October of 1995 (am I just concert-dropping now? I’ll let you decide), Tanya was sick and still knocked it out of the park. Of course, they played their biggest hit, “Feed the Tree”, which had the crowd ecstatic. They sweetly sang Happy Birthday to Vicki, a friend in the first row, after that and then closed the set with a mash-up of “Shiny One” off of 2018’s Doves (released on Belly Touring records) and their cover of Jimmy Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced”. The set ended and Belly left the stage. Everyone is aware of setlist.fm, so everyone (or almost everyone because there were people who left) knows that they’re coming out for two more songs, but the crowd was loud, appreciative and let Belly know that even though we know you’re coming back out, we’re going to let you know that we want you to come back out. Make sense? They earned the right to come back out for an encore is what I’m trying to say. This crowd reaction stood in stark contrast to the timid opening reaction just twenty songs ago.

The encore was two songs. The first was “Thief”, which first appeared as the second song on the “Now They’ll Sleep” UK Single released in 1995. It also appeared on the soundtrack for 1995’s massive hit Tank Girl. OK, maybe I’m being slightly facetious, but it is a good movie, which launched the career of Naomi Watts, and has a nice little soundtrack, which features “Aurora” by Veruca Salt. I digress, but for “Thief” and “Aurora” it’s worth it. “Thief” is without a doubt my favorite Belly song and could be my favorite song period. It’s such a beautiful song. If you’ve never heard it – click the link above. The second song – “Full Moon Empty Heart”, another of my Belly favorites, which, like “Thief”, is vocally demanding, brought the show to a close and further demonstrated Tanya’s amazing abilities – cold or not. Oh yeah, and the Gorman brothers, Tom and Chris, were there being amazing on guitar and drums respectively. Seriously, they’re really talented.