Belly’s biggest hit, “Feed The Tree,” showcases Tanya Donelly’s trademark talent for juxtaposing deeply disturbing subjects against the confection of an irresistible hook that belies the lyrical darkness, so that before you know it, you’re nodding along to an exuberant, catchy song about paying your respects to a deceased parent.
It’s a perfect example of Belly’s knack for catchy, convoluted dream-pop to haunt your nightmares, pulled from a debut album that featured fourteen other perfect examples: Star’s music is loaded with twisted imagery of decapitated dolls, paranormal figures haunting unsafe houses and foreboding blood moons that illustrate surrealistic fairy tales about a little girl who lost her teeth in a bike accident, a child snatched twice through the window (backwards, no less), a decomposing dog fastened to a woman’s back, a terribly sad dress, and the triumph of “untogethering” from relationships that give you the ick.
Two years after Star, Belly followed on with King: a record that was in many ways represented a major departure for these Rhode-Island rockers, leaving scary fairy tales about childhood behind to confront topics arguably even scarier: the real life of being a grown-up, including meditations on everything from substance abuse to the overwhelming disappointment of betrayal, grief, loss. Despite the thematic gravity, King conserves and even amplifies their pop buoyancy, trading sinister imagery and moodiness for bigger guitar and bigger bangs. By all counts though, the recording process for this album was brutal, and second only to a grueling tour in support – all of which ultimately strained the band to its breaking point. .
King turns 30 this year, and the four members of Belly – having since patched things up in a process that some nine years ago produced a reunion tour and even a third album – returned to Philly last Monday to wrap up at Underground Arts the first leg of a tour that offers fans the rare opportunity to revisit this often overlooked record front to back in its full glory, much of which they were playing live for the first time in three decades.
Belly may not be a band that’s toured consistently since the early days, but you wouldn’t know it from their stage chemistry, central to which is Donelly’s odd-couple energy with bassist Gail Greenwood, as Donelly often plays the calm, sometimes shoegazey foil anchoring Greenwood’s punk thrash, as brothers Chris and Tom Gorman rock steadily and dutifully on drums and lead guitar behind them.
And then, of course, there’s the stage banter. During a second set featuring favorites from the band’s other two albums – including a version of “Shiny One” reimagined to bookend their blistering cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced” – Greenwood provoked Donelly to perform a quick novelty act, before crowd-sourcing some additional enthusiasm by asking the room, “who wants to see Tanya do an impersonation of me?,” prompting a chorus of supportive applause
“Lower your expectations,” cautioned Donelly, before assuming an exaggerated stance that seemed to warmly mock the bassist’s characteristically dramatic stage presence, and delivering the punchline:
“DO YOU WANNA PARTY,” growled the singer, “LIKE IT’S NINETEEN-NINETY-THREE?!”
Greenwood egged on the responsive cheers. “Well DO you, Philadelphia!?”
Review and Photography by: Joshua Pelta Heller