Among the great ironies in Belle & Sebastian’s 13-year career is that this group, once known for stumbling through its live performances, has become a tight theater band. From the start, they resisted putting on common shows, eschewing pubs or clubs for libraries and churches– venues that made their performances atypical and unbound to live clichés. Because they performed infrequently in wildly different settings, however, it took time for B&S to hone their live show. The tentative steps charmed some: Writer/musician Franklin Bruno, in an enthusiastic email that was eventually excerpted in the zine Puncture, praised B&S in part for not “overpreparing” for their first U.S. show. In a review of the same gig, The New York Timesadmitted to loving the songs but called the band “lazy, unambitious bumblers full of private jokes they’re too sleepy to share.”