Grizzly Bear LIVE

**The bus driver having got off the bus for no tangible reason for ten minutes at the top the parade, I –swinging between fuming and attempting to reach an unreachable zen-like state, a place where buses stick to schedules and Warwick campus wasn’t literally built in the middle of nowhere – pondered what the evening ahead held for me. The itchy, anxious tone of much of Grizzly Bear’s latest record Shields, summed up by the queasy piano-line of upcoming single ‘A Simple Answer’, suggested a band that are, if not near the edge (they’re well within control of their sound and vision as always), certainly closer to the end of their tether and, consequently, more willing towards angst and abrasiveness amidst their usual lush harmonies and sonic vistas. But much like the bus, immobile and running out of time, shuddering and pulsing in place under the weight of frustration, perhaps the band’s eventual arrival would promise final release… catharsis even, the turmoil that fuelled the songwriting and production of their latest record purged gloriously on stage.
**
First though (the odyssey was eventually completed), was the none-too-small matter of Villagers. In the cavernous O2 arena supporting Elbow a year ago, certain nuances of melody and Conor O’Brien’s vocal quirks were lost, but in the warmth and comparative intimacy of the Arts Centre they shone: their rich sound, frankness of the storytelling and angst-ridden yelps in moments of crescendo quite simply captivating. The promise of their Mercury Prize-nominated debut suggested them to be a band that would threaten to play venues this size off their own back in an album or twos time, and new tracks like ‘The Waves’ and the beautiful ‘To The Lighthouse’ certainly promise an expansive, enrapturing sound that should enrapture an expanding audience – they certainly seemed to have the desired effect on this one.

Half an hour later and still pondering the dilemma of potential capture/release, Grizzly Bear made their way to the stage to provide some answers. Lined up in an egalitarian formation that suggests an openness and cohesion to the band as a unit, each a crucial piece to the puzzle, they briefly said their hellos and then crashed into ‘Speak in Rounds’, quite literally. The drums thumping in excelsis and Ed Droste’s vocals coming over slightly out of whack produced a flawed translation of an album highlight and led to the inevitable gesturing towards the side of the stage to even out the mix, but by the time the strange lampposts/Matrix sentinels that served as the show’s visual element had risen towards the rafters during ‘Adelma’ Grizzly Bear were hitting their stride.

Drawing fairly evenly between Shields and 2009’s Veckatimest, the set’s pacing was curated excellently: the first third peaking with ‘Yet Again’, sumptuous and rousing in all the ways where their Jools Holland performance had felt somewhat flat and muted; the later arrival of ‘Foreground’ serene amidst the distorted, bass-led psychedelic folk of ‘Ready, Able’ and ‘Gun-Shy’. If anything the performance’s surprising note was drawn from just how long a set of material Grizzly Bear can now call upon, whilst still leaving out plenty, after four full-length LPs. They’ve grown out of a dense scene of mid-2000s NY-based indie groups to lay out a territory all of their own, a fact heralded by the majestic set-closer ‘Sun In Your Eyes’. Indeed, perhaps as a consequence a decent portion of the audience thinned out upon its closure, the performance having felt full enough that any encore felt truly an addition rather than a required conclusion. But for those that stayed it was here that the longed-for release came. The fluid conversation between their last two records that had dominated the set, pressure being applied and released with each layer of noise or beauteous harmony, here finally appeased, and amidst the tranquillity of Yellow House’s ‘Knife’ and an acoustic performance of ‘All We Ask’ – which provided all the evidence that anyone’ll ever need for the Grizzlies being our generation’s The Beach Boys – left the room with the satisfaction of an exhaling breath. Suitably autumnal, with more talent in their little fingers than some bands have in their entire careers Grizzly Bear almost entirely succeeded in mesmerising the audience. They certainly made the bus home a more blissful place to be.