Bear in Heaven played The Bishop this Thursday, and what a show it was. The concert was one of the best I've seen in a long time. Surprisingly, the openers were almost as good as the headliner. Sun Airway started off the evening. Unfortunately, I missed most of their set. I made it in time for the last two songs, which were both enjoyable, but I don't feel qualified to judge their set based on them. Sun Airway has received a lot of buzz from Pitchfork, including comparisons to Animal Collective. However, those comparisons were based on two tracks, a trend in pre-releases of which I'm not a big fan. The next band was Lower Dens. The band is a project of Jana Hunter, who was previously known for folkier music. Her Lower Dens music is a drastic departure. Often dark, sometimes slow, always dreamy, I heard strains of bands like Sonic Youth and The xx. Some of the guitar style came from Sonic Youth; the guitarists coaxed out chimes and drones from their guitars. Like The xx, there was a focus on dark pop, although it was a bit darker with this band.
After such a great start, Bear in Heaven had a lot to live up to, but they delivered. The group was led by Jon Philpot, was set when he chose to dress up as Billy Crudup's character from "Almost Famous." Philpot sang in a falsetto voice most of the night, which sounded a bit like Barry Gibb if he were singing at the bottom of his falsetto register. Philpot shared bass duties with Adam Wills, who also played guitar. The band was particularly tight with the instrumental parts. Drummer Joe Stickney created much of the night's excitement. His drumming was impressive, but always tasteful. Stickney is also part of one of Rhys Chatham's bands, so he's got plenty of credibility.
Bear in Heaven played synth-based music, which was propulsive and dramatic. Most of the synthesizer lines were played by Philpot on his sampler, but unlike some other bands who rely on samples in their live show, these parts worked well with what the band was playing. Sometimes it felt a little like cheating when the most interesting/difficult parts were done with samples, but it wasn't a big problem. I loved how danceable the music was, while still having substance. The group focused mostly on their most recent album, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, which was released on Hometapes. If you haven't heard the album yet, check it out. The poppiest single from the album is "Lovesick Teenagers," which the band played relatively early in their set. On the album, the last track, "Casual Goodbye," reprises that song after a few minutes for a perfect ending. Unfortunately, even though they had such a great closer built in, the band played "Casual Goodbye" as the second- or third-to-last song of the night. It was a perplexing choice, but the closer was still pretty damn good, so I could live with it.
-Brian Mark
