Cymbals Eat Guitars + Bear In Heaven @ Il Motore: April 7th, 2010
This past Wednesday we stopped by the relatively new indie club, Il Motore, to check out two bands that have been making waves in the indie rock circles lately. Both Cymbals Eat Guitars and Bear in Heaven have received “best new music” from Pitchfork and various other glowing reviews. There was an excited buzz in the crowd to see what these bands were capable of live.
We arrived just on time for Bear In Heaven’s set. I had only just heard their album Beast Rest Forth Mouth a few days before the show, and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty confused. The record has many different synth tracks layered over breezy guitar parts that was a little too much for me to take in at once. But the minute they hit the stage and played their first note, it became clear what this band was all about. Possibly due to the fact that they’re touring with one less person, they sounded a much clearer on stage than on the album. Live, the heavy synths glazed perfectly over shoeglazey guitar lines and created some sort of psychedelic-indierock hyrbid. Lead singer Jon Philpot often sang with effects on his microphone, giving his voice an eerie twang that added to the laid back, almost trippy vibe. Their music has this quality that makes you sway from side to side, seeminlgy possessed by a strange rhythmic spirit. Since the show, I have listened to the album multiple times and am now in love with it. Sometimes you have to see a band in their truest form to understand what they’re conveying.
Lovesick Teenagers – Bear in Heaven
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Once Bear In Heaven finished their set, Cymbals Eat Guitars immediately began to set up their equipment. Considering this was their 3rd-to-last stop of the tour, they were well fast and ready to go within 15 minutes. They began their set with the first song from their album, “And The Hazy Sea,” which kicked off with a blast and proceeded through six minutes of various buildups and breakdowns. Lead singer Joe D’Agostino’s yelling was complemented perfectly with his profuse sweating that began just minutes into the show; this madman on stage kicked off the show with an intensity that he managed to hold on to for the entire hour set. Their album is full of layers, yet the band managed to pull off the full sound live despite only using four instruments (a guitar, set of keyboards, bass and drums).
The setlist was comprised of almost all the songs off of Why There Are Mountains, along with few new ones. The new songs were in the same vein as the older material yet perhaps slightly more composed. The band stuck around for a quick chat after the show, and Joe let us know they are signing to a record company and we should be expecting a new album sometime next year. He also told us that he was playing with a high fever that night (107 degrees!), which was pretty astounding considering the amount of energy he had on stage. This is definitely a band to look out for in the future, I have a feeling that the next album is going to be great. And if you haven’t grabbed their current album, do it now! Although it didn’t actually explain why mountains exist (which would have been really helpful for my geology exam), it is a great album.
Cold Spring – Cymbals Eat Guitars
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