As far as I’m concerned, 2006’s Yellow House was a decent album, with a few songs, most notably “Knife” and “On a Neck, on a Spit”, that blew the listener away and at least put Grizzly Bear on the map. But, for me, it was a bit overrated as the album was devoid of many memorable moments and was, well, boring. A beautiful album yes, and it was certainly evident that there was something there that hinted at Grizzly Bear’s talent and potential, but as a whole, I put the album on the back burner and never really felt a need to come back to it. Enter In Ear Park, the 2008 release from Grizzly Bear’s sister band Department of Eagles. Led by Daniel Rossen and featuring 2 other Grizzly Bear members, I surprisingly felt a much greater connection with this release and considered it one of the best albums of the year, just barely missing out on my top 10. There were elements on this release that I felt could benefit Grizzly Bear, but who knew if that would ever happen, so in essence, I became a fan of Department of Eagles more so than of Grizzly Bear.
I didn’t pay any attention to Grizzly Bear news, including their Friend EP release in 2007, but knew they had a new full-length album in the works for 2009 and was sure I would at least give it a listen. My first sense of excitement surrounding the new release was hearing “Deep Blue Sea” on the Dark Was the Night compilation (also featured on the Friend EP as a Dan Rossen home recording) and noticing hints of what I hoped Grizzly Bear could become and despite the fact that “Deep Blue Sea” would not be featured on the new album, the hype for Veckatimest continued to grow. The album leaked in early 2009 to horrible quality, but continued to generate buzz. So here we are, three years after Yellow House and with a fantastic side project release in between, Veckatimest finally has its day, and alas, the foundation laid by Yellow House has been built upon to create an epic release, easily Grizzly Bear’s masterpiece, that is sure to go down as one of the year’s best and the album that takes Grizzly Bear to a new level.
After a week long debate with myself on whether or not I wanted to make the Saturday night trek down to Atlanta to catch the TV on the Radio and Grizzly Bear show at The Tabernacle, I finally caved in on Thursday and bought my ticket. I didn’t want to look back on this opportunity and regret passing it up, and when all was said and done, I was very happy with my choice. The day started out a little rough as about 30 minutes outside of Greenville, they guys I was with realized their gigantic, bright red, Live Nation provided tickets were still sitting on the kitchen counter. Luckily, since we left early enough hoping to enjoy some dinner and drinks before the show, we had plenty of time to turn around and go pick up the tickets, albeit that cut our pre-concert festivities short. About 4 hours after we originally left Greenville we finally made it to dinner at a fine “delightfully tacky” eating establishment close to The Tabernacle when the next bit of rough news came through that Dirty Projectors was no longer opening the show. This was a bummer, as Bitte Orca had just been released to rave reviews and talks of the fine show they put on had us all excited…oh well. There was no time to harp on the bad news though, as we were about to enjoy a fantastic show from a couple Brooklyn acts and two of the best bands going today. (No pics from the show though…sorry.)
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear took the stage around 8:20 and started off with “Southern Point”, their fantastic opener on Veckatimest (album review coming soon!). This was honestly one of the highlights of the set for me as the song is instantly recognizable and really got me even more pumped about the upcoming set than I already was. The rest of the show featured a good mix of some of the highlights from Yellow House as well as all the fan favorites from Veckatimest. I was standing on the floor level to the right facing the stage and didn’t have a great view of the whole band but was able to see everything if I shifted my head a little to the left every now and then to see by the noggin of some fella and his girlfriend who got there about halfway through the set only to stand right in front of me and promptly ask me if they had already played “Knife”. Yep, they sure did…better luck next time. Meanwhile, the piano was just starting up for “Two Weeks”, so I told them at least you didn’t miss what’s maybe their best song. My best unobstructed view was of drummer Christopher Bear and I enjoyed watching him throughout the set as often times drums are the most underappreciated part of a band. So it was nice to see what he brought to the table and I went away impressed with his playing. I would loved to have heard more from Grizzly Bear as by the time “While You Wait for the Others” closed it out, I wasn’t really ready for them to be done, but they were just the opener so considering that, it was an amazing hour long (or so?) experience. A venue like The Tabernacle compliments their music perfectly being a band built quiet harmonies and not nearly as loud as what was about to follow.
TV on the Radio
Things started to get a good bit more crowded on the floor level in preparation for the TV on the Radio set and we actually ended up losing our spots and had to move back about 15 feet, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I was impressed at the amount of people at this show. The last (and first) show I went to at The Tabernacle was to see The Hold Steady and Drive By Truckers last fall, but that crowd was nothing compared to this which is actually kind of cool considering TVotR and Grizzly Bear are a couple northern acts and the show in the fall was headlined by true Alabama bred southerners Drive by Truckers. Good for you Atlanta! As TVotR took the stage, the first thing I noticed was the awesomeness of Kyp Malone’s beard. That thing is crazy and looks even more amazing seeing it person. I felt that the sound was a bit off for pretty much all of the set as TV on the Radio has to be a pretty tough band to get everything sounding perfect with the amount of stuff they have going on (just ask SNL). The vocals were muffled a bit, and the guitars just weren’t that crisp, but the energy and stage presence they brought to the set, highlighted by Tunde Adebimpe’s hand gestures and bouncing around the stage, was easily enough to overlook the slightly less than desired sound quality. And who knows, it may have just sounded like that from where I was standing. The band really hit it’s stride about 3 songs in during “Halfway Home” which is one of the many standouts from Dear Science,. But the absolute highlight of the entire night, for either band, was the best song TVotR has done (and will probably ever do) in “Wolf Like Me”. It was clearly the crowd favorite and what many had come to hear. And the band knew it too, as they gave their best performance of the set. Maybe the only thing that can rival that was the 2nd song of the encore, “A Method” which featured some members of Grizzly Bear. When all was said and done, the resounding feeling I was left with from the set was something every concert should do and that’s give you a feeling that life is good. Damn good. And while we may not quite yet be in the “Golden Age” TV on the Radio sings of, for a few hours one Saturday night in Atlanta, it sure as hell felt like it.
How about a song from each band? Well, here ya go. No, these are not live versions.
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 