[ATTENDED: October 27, 2025] Belly
I really liked Belly when they first came out. Their debut album is great and the follow up King is probably just as good. When this tour was announced I wasn’t sure if I had listened to King all that much but when I put it on again I realized I knew it quite well. Then I looked at other setlists to see of they were playing any of the songs from Star, and the were. So I decided to see them.
I’ve always liked Tanya Donnelly–she’s been on the periphery of massive success pretty often. She founded Throwing Muses with Kristen Hersh (her step sister). But I feel like Tanya left just before they became more commercially successful.
Then she formed The Breeders with Kim Deal. But she left before they released Last Splash. And then she formed Belly. She had a pretty big hit with Feed the Tree. But King wasn’t as successful and Belly broke up. Tanya went solo.
Belly reformed in 2016 with almost all four original members. The original bassist was replaced by Gail Greenwood right after Feed the Tree and is with them as they reunited. Belly put out an album in 2018 which I missed entirely.
They toured in 2016 playing a set of mostly Star and King, then toured in 2018 playing mostly the new album, Dove. And now they were back for King.
The set was great and I was delighted with how much fun bassist Gail was. She was very chatty with the audience and when she said that the next sing would make you cry, a guy next to me said I’m crying already, and she went over and gave him a hug. Gail also sang an amazing range of backing vocals, from really deep voices to very high pitched ones. And her bass sounded great.
The stage set up was interesting, with Tanya and Gail right up front. Lead guitarist Thomas Gorman was on the far side. He was in the background a bit although he did take front stage for the few guitar solos he played. His brother, drummer Chris Gorman was behind a pole and I didn’t see him for the whole show–but the drums sounded great.
But of course the focus is Tanya. She exuded a coolness that I really enjoyed. But she didn’t see aloof or above it all. She seemed to be having a really good time. Especially when Gail said, thanks for cheering us on even when we suck. But they did not suck. They sounded great and Tanya’s voice was really impressive. She hit some high notes in the encores that really blew me away. And the harmonies between her and Gail were fantastic.
I didn’t know every song from King. It’s weird that I didn’t really know the first two songs all that well, but I knew the next few–who doesn’t remember the first song on an album? And when they sang the jittery Red, I couldn’t wait to shout along with the chorus. Silverfish sounded fantastic and Super-Connected was even better than I remembered.
After the album, they took a short break and came back with a second set of mostly songs from Star (which was great!). I got to hear all of my favorite songs from the album, so that was super cool. They played two songs from Dove which sounded very nice, if not a little slower. And they ended the set with the Dive track Shiny One. They merged that song into Jimi Hendrix’ Are You Experienced (which I see is on their B sides record, so I guess it has been a part of their set for a while) which merged back into Shiny as they headed off for the encore break.
It’s obvious that they were going to do an encore (it was on the setlist after all), but it’s always nice when a band seems to really appreciate that the people there are excited for them to come back.
I didn’t know the first song, Thief, which is a bonus song on their greatest hits album. This was one of the songs where Tanya really showed that she could hit those high notes. It was a quiet, almost acoustic song (she didn’t play acoustic guitar) for about half of it. And then the band kicked in to rock the rest. The final song was Full Moon Empty Heart. I aways assume bands are going to save the big hits for the encore–but no one seems to do that anymore. And that’s fine. But I found it odd that they picked this song to end the show. Unless it was an opportunity for Tanya to save her voice for the end, where she–damn–really hit some impressive high notes.
I also really appreciated that this was an evening with Belly and the whole show was done by around 10:15.
I’m really glad I finally got to see them.
SETLIST
King album
- Puberty ♠
- Seal My Fate ♠
- Red ♠
- Silverfish ♠
- Super-Connected ♠
- The Bees ♠
- King ♠
- Now They’ll Sleep ♠
- Untitled and Unsung ♠
- L’il Ennio ♠
- Judas My Heart ♠
Set 2 - Low Red Moon *
- Gepetto *
- Slow Dog *
- Human Child ◊
- Spaceman ≅
- Dusted *
- Feed the Tree *
- Shiny One ◊ >
- Are You Experienced (Jimi Hendrix song)
encore - Thief ≅
- Full Moon Empty Heart *
≅ Bees (2021) [also appeared as new songs on their Greatest Hits album in 2002]
◊ Dove (2018)
♠ King (1995)
* Star (1993)
I Just Read About That... 