Our brilliant guest blogger, Britt Lundborg, attended last night’s gig and offers a full report! No one inside Mercury Lounge last night seemed in the least concerned that they were missing the State of the Union. Politics can be TiVOed – Bear In Heaven playing the late show wasn’t to be missed. Before the set even began, they lit dozens of incense sticks and the scented smoke wafted around them before pouring into the audience. With this, coupled with their intensely rhythmic music, Bear In Heaven hopes to promise a ‘fully immersive’ concert experience. At first sight, I wondered whether these Brooklyn boys had spent a smidge too much time at Burning Man and had come away with some hoaky notion of music as spirit guide. But perhaps that’s just my adverse reaction to patchouli. In any case, it fucking worked and they made some magic. Listening to Bear In Heaven’s LP, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, is a far more electronic experience than their live show when the music really grows some teeth. Obviously, that has to do with putting a face to a bleep-bloop, but, seeing that the percussion emanates from a man with a drum-set instead of a machine brings a raw tumult to the music as a whole. And, man, can Joe Stickey man those sticks. He propelled their glorious tribal anthem, ‘Beast In Peace’, into Mercury Lounge’s intimate corners and beckoned everyone into the beat. Though sometimes reedy, lead singer Jon Philpot’s voice cuts through the music’s grand furor. When they played ‘You Do You’, its psychedelically-painted prog caused the room to swoon. Categorizing BIH is problematic – they reside in the same space as Yeasayer but sometimes have sleep-overs at Secret Machines’ house. So, why categorize at all? Just do yourself some good & dwell in the expansive drone.
