'Partying like it's 1995'

Give me a 'B' ... give me an 'e' ... what's it spell? Beck? Belly? Both!

I had the opportunity to experience both these '90s icons on stage and in their elements in the past several months. Both are artists I wasn't completely obsessed with during that decade, but have become increasingly so about in the ensuing years.

I'd been particularly bonkers over Beck. Ever since the Midnite Vultures album, he's soared higher and higher in my estimation. I love how he changes styles with each album. What could he do after racking up Grammys with the critically lauded, dreamy Morning Phase? To the extremely danceable Colors, of course!



So how many concerts have attended in your lifetime in which the overriding opinion wound up being "It wasn't as good as the record?" It can't be said about Beck. Despite the difficulty inherent in recreating the multi-layered sounds of Colors for the stage, he sounded outta sight in his first headlining gig at Madison Square Garden on July 19. "This is no small miracle to be here," he told us. It kind of felt that way to me, my Beck buddy Liam and the vibrant crowd as well.

Setlist: Devils Haircut, The New Pollution, Mixed Bizness, Up All Night, Wow, Qué Onda Güero, Think I'm in Love (I Feel Love interlude), I'm So Free, Dear Life (with Britt Daniel),  I Turn My Camera On (with Daniel), Girl Dreams (with Jenny Lewis), Lost Cause, Blue Moon, Video Girl, Colors, Loser, E-Pro. Encore: Where It's At Play, Can I Kick It/Good Times/See No Evil/I'm Waiting for the Man/Taking It to the Streets/Once in A Lifetime/In the Air Tonight, One Foot in the Grave, Where It's At (reprise).

As evidenced by the setlist, there was an amazing mix of tracks from virtually every corner of his discography. Spoon frontman Britt Daniel joined in for one of Beck's -- "Dear Life" and one of his own -- "I Turn My Camera On." Then Beck dedicated "Girl Dreams" to Bill Murray after finding out the actor liked the song. "I have a song called 'Girl' and a song called 'Dreams' and a song called 'Girl Dreams,'" he laughed. We were particularly thrilled to get the latter, since the One Foot in the Grave track hadn't been played live since 2003.



There were lots of fun Beck tidbits sprinkled throughout the night of music, including family history about his ancestors jumping overboard and then working on the docks in New Jersey. He thanked us for indulging his desire to change genres. But seriously, Beck, we're not coddling you in the slightest. When you can pull off a dance tune as well as one of the funky soul variety, it's not difficult to remain Team Beck. He told us that Colors came about as a result of all the energy he's gotten from fans over the years. On this particular date, those helping cultivate a strong dose of positive energy included his mother and his son.

Beck told a story of a previous appearance at the Garden, in 1997 for the Grammys. Odelay was a nominee for Album of the Year and he had just performed "Where It's At" when he was "taken through twists and turns" around the labyrinthine passageways and left in a holding area ... with Bruce Springsteen. "It was like a dream where you turn around and see Bruce," he recalled. "I asked him, 'What are you doing here?' He asked me, ''What are you doing here?"



That made for the perfect segueway into the song he performed that night at the Grammys, complete with a lovely "Strawberry Fields Forever" intro. Then the members of his band went around the horn spotlighting iconic artists from the city, including A Tribe Called Quest ("Can I Kick It?"), Chic ("Good Times"), Television ("See No Evil"), Velvet Underground ("I'm Waiting for the Man") and Talking Heads ("Once in a Lifetime"). Beck also brought back long beloved members of his band and I flashed back to Liam and my 2006 Jersey City show when they fell all over each other to cap "E-Pro" ... just as they had done back then.

At least I'd seen Beck before. I thought I had eternally missed the Belly boat when I was thrown a life preserver in the form of the Sept. 28 show at the Union Transfer in Philadelphia. The tour came on the heels of the band's very strong third album, Dove, very reminiscent of the catchy and heartfelt songs Tanya Donelly and company became known for in the '90s.



Set 1 setlist: Seal My Fate, Army of Clay, Dusted, Mine, Red, The Bees, Quicksand, Stars Align, Now They'll Sleep, Silverfish. Set 2: Shiny One, Gepetto, Faceless, Feed the Tree, Artifact, Slow Dog, Girl, Super-Connected, Full Moon Empty Heart, Human Child. Encore: Low Red Moon, Starryeyed.

"Did you miss us?" bassist Gail Greenwood asked when Belly took the stage and I didn't realize how much I did until just then. It didn't matter that they flubbed the start of "Army of Clay," in fact, it proved to be all the more endearing for the humanizing moment. Greenwood gave me the blog headline when she proclaimed we'd be partying like 1995. After proclaiming "time is elastic," that concept was tweaked to 1993 and used again for the band's seminal song, "Feed the Tree."



Donelly's vocals seemed a little buried from my perch on the second floor of Union Transfer, but the telltale Belly riffs were unmistakable, even in the new songs. The full force of Tanya's ability broke through the mix on "Red" and some of the newer songs. One concertgoer called for "Judy Staring at the Sun," the Catherine Wheel song featuring Donelly. Tanya laughed and said "it would sound very sad and and small with long pauses in between [the lyrics] 'She's suffering.'"

The chemistry between Donelly, Greenwood, lead guitarist Tom Gorman and drummer Chris Gorman was palpable. So much so that when someone shouted "Get a room" after Tanya kissed Tom, she responded, "If that was gonna happen, it would have happened a long time ago."



That week, the band was reeling on the heels of the Senate Judiciary Committee's dismissal of sexual assault testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, referring to the miscarriage of justice several times during the night. Donely offered up a two-handed middle-finger salute and thanked the crowd for "turning a shit week into a fucking beautiful week."

Admittedly, at the time, I didn't know their songs as well as I wished I did, so I could lip sync to every single song. But that will surely change by the next time I get to see them, for Belly is right up my proverbial alley. The passion they have for playing with each other and to the audience backs up some amazing talent, for sure.

So if I could jump in a time machine and head back to 1995 or 1993, I'd surely be paying more attention to both Beck and Belly. I'd be Beck to the future with a Belly full of memories.