Bear Hands
I dropped by World Cafe Live last week to catch Bear Hands’ set opening for As Tall As Lions. Their music has intrigued me for a while and I was curious to see how it translated live. The group’s recorded material is a hyper combo of surf guitars, tight drums and sing/speak lyrics which is pretty much what you get in their live show. While the four members of the band don’t have a whole lot to offer in terms of stage presence, they do a nice job of bringing some added flair to the live presentation.
Watching them – guitars(2), keyboard, bass & drums- create their music you get a much better sense of bass and percussion presence. The roots of their tracks are maintained but they really punched up the weight the bass lines carry in establishing the rhythm and the percussion was what added most of the draw.
With the ubiquitous extra floor tom, played by basist Val Loper, front and center it was hardtoignore the contribution the percussion makes to Bear Hand’s intensity. While there were the occasional aggressive guitar riff the wealth of their energy cam from drummer TJ Orscher’s side of the stage. As the set went on I noticed there is an interesting call and response relationship between TJ and Val that I never noticed on the recordings, perhaps because I assumed it was all one percussionist. On the whole, it was a good set and if their future works show signs of evolution then they have a good chance at growing their following. The group has been on the road for a long time and I’m guessing they’re gonna take some time to rest and regroup now that they’re back in Brooklyn. I look forward to hearing what directions they explore in their new work.