Bear In Heaven – Live In San Francisco

Bear In Heaven

San Francisco – Experimental Brooklyn-based trio Bear in Heaven hit the stage for a thoroughly enthralled audience this week at The Independent in San Francisco.  This brainchild of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/composer Jon Philpot is on the road in support of the band’s fourth album, Time is Over One Day Old, released last month via Dead Oceans, and their most straightforward and concise effort to date.

The band graced the stage after opening acts Miles Cooper Seaton and Young Magic, and was met by enthusiastic cheers as they sauntered in, awash in glowing, prismatic light.  The band played healthy doses from their two most recent albums, along with a couple of favorites from their 2009 sophomore LP Beast Rest Forth Mouth: the droning, gooey “You Do You” and their breakthrough single “Lovesick Teenagers,” both of which were met with thunderous applause from the devoted crowd.

Bear In Heaven

Bear in Heaven’s new album is perhaps their most accessible and diligently conceived/executed album to date.  Our Liz Rowley called it “the perfect soundtrack to the…end of summer.”  One can tell they were really striving to create something new and interesting for their listeners to absorb.  Additionally, their performance of their new material was impeccably organic.  Bear in Heaven’s studio recordings exude such glossy perfection that to see them live is almost startling, as Philpot’s vocals and the synthesizers he effortlessly commands with his fingers are joined by the brusque honesty of Jason Nazary’s forceful, unmitigated percussion.  It brings back memories of seeing up-and-coming bands Brooklyn bars and on the Lower East Side of Manhattan—as I often did when I lived there years ago—not in the sense of any component sounding unpracticed or unprofessional; rather the percussion sounded natural, sort of like an elemental force rooted in the tradition of analog composition, making its voice heard amongst its digital compatriots.  This visceral, almost tribal quality resonated throughout the entire set, bringing new life to Bear in Heaven’s older and newer pieces.

The set opened with Time’s first track, “Autumn,” which has a sort of Boards of Canada-esque mini intro before it plunges headfirst into a flurry of synthesized shrieks that end up quelling instantly upon the entrance of Philpot’s smooth, sensual vocals.  Later came songs like the deliciously twitchy “If I Were To Lie,” as well as the buzzing militarism of “Demon” and the lead single “Time Between,” which had Philpot excitedly belting ‘Faaaaaaallling out’ over the crowd with syrupy delight.  Older songs peppered the set between the new tracks, including the dizzying mania of “Sinful Nature” and the achy, punctuated tranquility of “Cool Light,” with the pounding gravity of “Kiss Me Crazy” rounding out the mid-point of the set like a misplaced exclamation point playfully inserted in the middle of a statement, just for the fun of throwing people off.

The set concluded with several newer tracks, including the calculated, Caribou-like mayhem of “They Dream” which was followed with gentle album-closer “You Don’t Need The World” (after they played “Lovesick Teenagers” juxtaposed with an equally tender version of Time’s penultimate track, “Dissolve the Walls.”

Bear In Heaven’s music may have lost a little bit of its former mystique that so resonated with fans of the more esoteric side of electronic music, yet their talent remains unwaveringly stalwart.  Their performance at The Independent was a true example of their tenacity and their dedication to their craft.  The loyal fans that gathered were far from disappointed.

For more information and tour dates visit the band’s website.

Corey Bell

Corey Bell

Corey Bell is no stranger to music.Having spent the better part of the past decade at concerts and music festivals around the globe, he finds he is most at home in the company of live music.Originally a native of New England, he has since taken residence in New York and New Orleans, and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.He achieved his Bachelor of Arts from Goddard College in Vermont via an undergraduate study entitled “Sonic Highways: Musical Immersion on the Roads of America," in which he explores the interactions between music, natural environment, and emotion while travelling along the scenic byways and highways of the United States.His graduate thesis, “Eighty Thousand’s Company,” features essays regarding the historical and socio-economic facets of contemporary festival culture intertwined with personal narrative stories of his experiences thereof.He is the former editor of Art Nouveau Magazine and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from California College of the Arts.
Corey Bell