|
By: Justin Gillett
Grizzly Bear/Here We Go Magic :: 06.22.09 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA
 Grizzly Bear |
It's easy to think that a band best known for crafting lush and finely honed albums might have a hard time transitioning from studio to stage. Sometimes a band sounds so good and well produced on record that it seems like it'd be impossible for the group to pull-off playing in a live setting. For a band like Grizzly Bear it must be difficult to take their methodical songs and play them live without any studio support. The band recently released Veckatimest which has gone on to receive critical acclaim and been lauded as one of the best albums of the year (see JamBase's contribution to this chorus here). The record is a beautiful achievement for the Brooklyn quintet and for the chamber pop genre in general. Many of the cuts are layered with carefully constructed harmonies and intricate instrument arrangements. With these attributes, it's hard to imagine the band playing a good amount of their song catalogue live. But at the band's recent tour-closing show at The Fillmore, Grizzly Bear proved that their songs are meant for the stage and that they are a highly respectable touring band.
With the hype surrounding Veckatimest the band has been riding high as the proverbial "golden boys" of their respective niche genre. When the band quickly sold out their one-night stand at The Fillmore, a second show was added to oblige fans that weren't able to get tickets. The second show sold out quickly as well – a testament to the cultural juggernaut that Grizzly Bear has quickly become.
Opening for Grizzly Bear on their spring tour was Here We Go Magic, also from Brooklyn, who were able to warm up the crowd with their unique form of lilting guitar pop. Lead singer-songwriter Luke Temple's impressive vocal range was matched by the melodic skills of the rest of the band, who harmonized and added consistent depth to otherwise drab tunes. While the majority of the band's songs revolved around simplistic chord progressions, the vocal layering and almost tribal drumming, courtesy of Peter Hale, made the songs airy and subtle. A nice surprise was that most of the songs Here We Go Magic played seemed to morph into free form jam outros, letting the musicians concentrate on their instruments instead of their vocal duties. After nearly 40 minutes it was clear that this band still has some territory to cross when it comes to performing, evident by the boorish, uninterested manner in which all of the members of the five-piece-group play, with the exception of Hale.
When Grizzly Bear sauntered on stage and started with Veckatimest's album opener, "Southern Point," the band quickly garnered the attention of the crowd with their signature soaring vocals and intelligent guitar riffs. They immediately proved with their first song that a Grizzly Bear show is in no ways trying to bank off the studio success. Live the group is loose without being sloppy; they're casual yet clearly serious about what they're doing. They're a band that's spent enough time together, recording brilliant albums in the process, road testing material and fine-tuning their performances to become a great live act. They're perfectionists, in the studio and on the stage, and their ability to seamlessly morph songs off their albums into live performance entities is proof of that.
 Daniel Rossen - Grizzly Bear by Kyle Dean Reinford |
Playing old school Dan Electro guitars and vintage Rickenbacker basses, while cracking smiles as they crooned into their microphones, it was clear that these guys have been waiting for moments like this for a while. Playing to sold out venues, on the heels of a stunning album, with New England sensibilities and New York sophistication must be what this band has dreaming about for years. Singer-songwriter Ed Droste broke it down easily enough between songs, "I really love The Fillmore. I don't want to sound cheesy but there's a really good energy here."
As the band progressed through their set, playing hits like "Fine For Now" and "I Live for You," many of the songs seemed to take on a darker, more serious and serene sound. Bassist Chris Taylor, who normally holds down the backbone of their groove, occasionally picked up a clarinet to add a more ominous tone. Even the unabashed pop sensibilities of "Two Weeks" took on an entirely different, almost morose feel, though Grizzly Bear's music is not all that chipper or up-beat in the first place, however, the band was playing with minimal musical elation and trace amounts of major chord bliss. While the audience erupted into immense applause when the band finished a song, there was no visible dancing on behalf of the crowd. Maybe some slight head bobbing, but clearly no hip shaking or thrusting. It seemed like the audience would have preferred to sit at candle lit tables as opposed to a packed open dance floor.
The majority of songs Grizzly Bear played didn't have the classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Their tunes, which draw heavily upon the strength of all members' vocal harmonies, seem more free-form and experimental live. The lead vocals of Droste and Daniel Rossen are amazing and pristine, while the drumming of Christopher Bear (yes, that is his real last name) is collected yet spastic and unruly, almost reminiscent of Ginger Baker. As the band plowed through their set and finished with a solid rendering of "Neck," there didn't seem like there was going to be an encore. But Grizzly Bear reappeared on stage and announced that they were about do something special to close out the show and their tour. They all gathered around a single microphone, Rossen with acoustic guitar and Bear with toms, and proceeded to go into a dream-inducing version of "All We Ask." The crowd was ghostly silent as the band played, each trying to drink in the last drops of a band that is clearly peaking. When Grizzly Bear finished and thanked the crowd, the audience departed from the venue fully aware they had just witnessed something special that doesn't happen at every tour stop.
Grizzly Bear :: 06.22.09 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA
Southern Point, Cheerleader, Lullaby, Lil Bro, Service Bell, Knife, Colorado, Fine For Now, Two Weeks, Shift, Ready Able, I Live With You, Foreground, Will You Wait, Fix It, Neck
Encore: All We Ask (acoustic)
JamBase | Bay Area
Go See Live Music!
|
