To say the crowd was “into the show” would have been a gross understatement. With songs like “Deafening Love” and “You Do You,” Bear In Heaven are downright anthemic. They really drive home their sonic concepts with the success of pop music, but without the kitschy annoyance of pop music. Their songs get drilled into your brain because you want them to. It’s like going to the dentist and begging for more! Remember Bill Murray in Little Shop Of Horrors?
Later, at dinner with the band, we bantered and bandied about and had a grand ol’ Southern time eating grits and fried fish. But then a calming silence came around the table when all three band members (Sadek Bazarra, the bassist, did not make SxSW) at the table agreed, “We want to make dance music.” I found that to be a strange and simple goal compared to the density and complexity of their sound. It was also funny to me because their music doesn’t sound like it wants to be all that dancey. It sounds like it wants to be HUGE, and the involuntary dancing is just icing on the cake. This may be what one might call a “great success!”
The next Bear In Heaven show we attended was at one in the morning on Friday/Saturday. We were beat and napping on the house speakers as guitarist Adam Wills greeted us mid sound-testing his shit. He looked like he just had his morning cup of coffee and was ready to take on the world. By this time, the fans were growing in number immensely. Throughout SxSW, I did not see another 1am show as energetic as Bear In Heaven’s. Drummer Joe Stickney hits hard and sure like an Alabama boy should, and the crowd was aware and ecstatic by the second opening cymbal crash that Bear In Heaven would be closing their set with (again, the anthemic) “You Do You.”
The trifecta I saw at SxSW showcased pure nonchalant musicianry. It’s as if they are so immersed in being purveyors of their own music and curators of quality music from the days of yore that they have no idea how talented they are. Lead singer Jon Philpot proclaimed that they all just played music in his Brooklyn apartment, while messing around. They just did it. This is a free-flowing and relaxed attitude, considering their powerful and entrancing sound.
Regardless of their work patterns, Bear In Heaven seem poised for a comfortable ride to electro-indie stardom. And I hope they’ll look back one day and say, “Remember when we had dinner with those Redefine Magazine people? They were… interesting.”
www.bearinheaven.com
Bear In Heaven, On:
Production And Their Roots [1/4] – Songwriting [2/4] – Their Label, Hometapes [3/4] – Whipping Cream! Barack Obama! [4/4]
Interview conducted at the East Side Show Room in Austin, Texas.
