Boombox Saint

Bear In Heaven [Live at the Earl | Atlanta | 10/1/09]

It’s been a while since I have written anything substantive about something musical, so I am a bit rusty on all of the adjectives I used to call on to pep things up without crossing the line into Rolling Stone-esque obnoxious territory.  Seems as of late, I have been filing away my show-going experiences no place else but in my memory, which, most that know me well will tell you, is a dangerously forgetful hiding place.  I’m going to jump back into this thing, though, because last night I got a little push from an old friend, who tells me, perhaps wisely, that the best thing you can do for a band these days is to blog about them.  Rather than opening this up to yet another monologue on the emerging importance of new media in PR, I’m just gonna cut right to the chase here: I saw a fucking fantastic show last night and I have been thinking about what I heard all day long.

I feel the need to keep this brief, in part because my good pal Rags rather eloquently beat me to the blogging punch, and in other part because I just looked back at an old blog I wrote about the band in question, and found that many of the things I said still ring true.  Given that, I think time would be better served pointing out what has changed in the last year when it comes to Bear In Heaven:

First, and perhaps most pressing, the singer dude [Jon Philpot] got a haircut!  I know people across the internet were concerned after I posted last time that he was just an extension away from joining the ranks of Herman Lee, but I can assure you that things were much improved on the haircut front.

Secondly, “tings and bings” doesn’t come close to doing these dudes justice anymore.  What was in front of me last night was a band that seemed tuned into each other and found a way to transfix the crowd.  There was an eerily calm vibe among those in attendance for most of the set.  Only occasionally were they stirred from their trances by the band’s quickly punctuating growls and grabs.  People weren’t talking to their neighbors, they were tuned into the band.  I have to say, there was something that really got me hooked in this time, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one.

I’d be misleading the five of you that regularly read this thing, if I said I hadn’t gone to the Earl last night solely to support a friend who was out on tour; I never expected to truly enjoy this show – but I ended up feeling it from the inside out.  I found myself, a couple of songs in, looking to Rags to see if she felt it too.  She turned to me a short while later and declared that she had goose bumps.  I didn’t, I was feeling something more akin to electricity.  Adam [Wills, bass/guitar], being a local boy, had family in attendance.  His dad turned to me and Rags about halfway through the set to ask what we thought, his question coming off as more of a statement as he said “They’re pretty good aren’t they?!”  I wholeheartedly agreed.

Turns out, in the year plus, since I last saw Bear In Heaven, the band returned to Brooklyn and came into their own.  With a new album set for release tomorrow through Hometapes, these dudes are in fighting shape.  Although I assumed I was tuned into the buzz around them due to the friend factor, last night got me thinking Bear In Heaven have earned every accolade.  Stereogum, Paste, Pitchfork, and indie-darlings be damned, this band doesn’t need your cred; with shows like the one I just saw, they just need to plug in and people will get on board.