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Belly @ Bowery Ballroom night 2 (review, setlist, pics)

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“We used this joke last night, but…are you ready to party like it’s 1993?” Belly bassist Gail Greenwood asked the Bowery Ballroom crowd Thursday night. The answer to that was a resounding yes, as the packed house of late-30-somethings-plus were indeed ready for a great night of music from the Clinton era. So were the reunited band, including leader Tanya Donelly and brothers Tom and Chris Gorman, all smiles and seeming very to be happy to be playing Belly songs in front of a crowd again after 20 years away.

This was Belly’s second sold-out night at Bowery Ballroom and, at least song-order-wise, was a very different set than they played the previous night (and the rest of the tour). They kicked things off with bang — Star‘s “Dusted” and “Slow Dog” — and ran through basically everything you wanted to hear across two sets. I was a huge fan in the beginning, collecting all their import EPs and singles up through Star, and was less enamored with the production on second album King but, as witnessed last night, all of it has weathered the last 20 years impressively.

Favorite moments from last night: The perfectly offhanded “ooh ooh ooh ooh” hook on “The Bees”; the vocal tour-de-force that is “Low Red Moon” (I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Donelly’s voice); the soaring middle-eighth of “Full Moon, Empty Heart”; and “Superconnected”‘s massive chorus which had the whole crowd singing along (including Okkervil River’s Will Sheff). There was a lot of singing along the whole night, honestly. The only song they didn’t play that I wanted to hear was ballad “Untogether,” but maybe she didn’t have someone to sing it with. (They played it night 1, actually.) Belly played two new songs, too, and the second set one, “Human Child,” was especially good. I for one hope they continue.

Check out a gallery from Belly at Bowery night 1 here, and night 2 setlist, instagrams and video, are below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI_2eQbBM7e/?taken-at=3002301

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAgCuSDvCs/?taken-at=3002301

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI_-qFihVx1/?taken-at=3002301

SETLIST: Belly @ Bowery Ballroom 8/11/2016
Dusted
Slow Dog
Untitled and Unsung
Puberty
Punish
The Bees
Low Red Moon
Red
Gepetto
Full Moon, Empty Heart
Judas My Heart

Set 2
Seal My Fate
Now They’ll Sleep
Feed the Tree
Human Child
Spaceman
Angel
Super-Connected
Stay

Encore
Thief

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