Some of the night's best tracks, though, came from the band's masterpiece album, When Your Heartstrings Break, including "Sunday Under Glass", "Score from Augusta" and "If We Can Land on the Moon...". The set also included "Matter vs. Space" and "Emma Blowgun's Last Stand" with perfectly-timed, distortion-filled intros. In that vein, Beulah brilliantly pulled off alternate intros to a few other songs, which added to the originality and creativity of the performance.

But Beulah also busted out its best tracks from the band's third full-length, The Coast Is Never Clear, including "What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades?", a slide-guitar-less (to my disappointment) "Gravity's Bringing Us Down" and the gorgeous "Gene Autry" (see video here), among others. And Beulah clearly did not neglect the album it was touring to support, having played at least seven of the ten Yoko tracks.

The icing on the cake was one piece of merchandise: a (autographed) disc of four-track Yoko demos mirroring the album in song order (album cover shown on right). With respect to song content, the acoustic demos vary quite substantially from the official release. Music fans will appreciate the rare opportunity to witness the evolution of an album. If enough demos CDs remain following the tour, you can purchase one for a measly ten bucks at Velocette's website. What are you waiting for?

NMWYH Concert Rating: 1/2 out of 5. If you have not had the opportunity to catch Beulah and you live in Seattle or San Francisco, you still have a chance. Don't miss one of the best live acts around. As for the band breaking up, why don't you ask them what the deal is.

For more musings on independent rock, please visit No Matter What You Heard.