Quarterlifeparty

Took a trip to NYC this weekend to catch Grizzly Bear at town hall, and just enjoy the nice weather. Town Hall is a sit down venue so that definitely gave the whole thing a more formal vibe, but it is a venue that works well with Grizzly Bear’s well orchestrated music. I caught maybe one song at the end of Here We Go Magic‘s set and wasn’t all that impressed. I enjoy their album, and it’s a fitting sound to open up for Grizzly Bear, but live it just didn’t come off as I expected. But I did only see one song, so I will give them another chance if they come around to bmore.

Grizzly Bear came out and began with the album opener “Southern Point”, Rossen began singing with that mysteriously creepy warble in his voice and I was immediately engrossed. The rest of the group’s vocals blend meticulously with an angelic quality to their voices, his is the one that is a bit “off”.. adds something haunting to the music. They each have seem to come into their own, found their place and style, they each know the part they play and they have really taken that and added so much detail to every song on this new album.  When Droste stepped up to sing “Cheerleader” on the second song of the night, it was impressive, his voice took over the entire theatre and just when you thought it couldn’t get more beautiful, the rest of the group chimes in with their own layers.

The drummer is impressive to watch, he is pretty gentle throughout most of the songs, but knows perfectly when to step in and take over, it’s a great talent to watch.  They had a few surprises up their sleeve on Saturday night. I had heard the night before that they had brought out a Youth Choir  to sing for a few songs, on this night they brought a string quartet for 4 songs towards the end. The strings blended in seamlessly and just added to the already lush atmosphere the band makes. It didn’t overwhelm, just accented the music.What did overwhelm at times was Rossen’s guitar style.  he has a pretty signature style and is one of the more talented guitarist in indie rock right now, but at times his jarring strumming and the repetitive nature of some Grizzly bear songs can wear on your patience. In the same way their albums are, the concert had parts in the middle that tested the audience’s patience.  But I must say, that you get out of it what you put in, you put your time in to listen to their detailed, orchestrated arrangements and next thing you know you are immersed.

The other surprise they had, was an acoustic (almost acapella) version of “All We Ask”, one of my favorites from the new album.  Rossen just played acoustic guitar standing around the mic with the other members of the band as they sang… it was great to see and harkened back to when I first heard of them watching their La Blogotheque videos before Yellow house came out.  Speaking of Yellow House, they did a great “On a Neck, On A Spit” which they stated before the song that they hadn’t played in a long time.

There really isn’t much I can complain about the night, they put on a great performance.  Although I complained a bit about having to see them sitting down, it really wasn’t all that bad because I could just sit back and zone out to the music. I was frequently distracted by all of them at once for each of their unique talents. It was like a tennis match starting on the left with Taylor seeming to pull out a new instrument from his pocket every 5 minutes, to the right where you might find Bear banging on the cymbals with his bare hands.  Their was even some good banter going on when Taylor couldn’t find a pic to play with. The band sarcastically took questions from the crowd and asked if “Anyone have a birthday?”.

Grizzly Bear “Two Weeks”

Tags: , grizzly bear , live review