On paper, the pairing of Brooklyn upstarts Bear In Heaven with English post-punk legends Wire, seems to be a match made in heaven.
In reality, or at least last night at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, the pairing came across more as a mismatch and I attribute this to a completely detached crowd… or it could be that everyone’s exhausted this week thanks to the weather?
Following the threats of yet another storm, most people may have been weary of chancing transit to get around or were content to batten down the hatches and ride the storm out. Well the storm didn’t happen but that didn’t stop Bear In Heaven from opening their set with a storm of noise before a very sparse crowd at Lee’s.
Although they ‘ve been playing for 10 years, Bear In Heaven are relative upstarts to me – I only chanced upon their most recent excellent album, I Love You, It’s Cool. Front man Jon Philpot handled vocal duties, keys and the bass on a couple of occasions. Accompanying this multi-tasking were some of the most endearing awkward dance moves this side of Footloose! It was hard not to dance with the beats anchoring the band’s noisy new-wave pop tunes. Nonetheless, during their 40 minute set Bear In Heaven filled the room with some beautiful noise, touching upon their three-album discography. Aside from a handful of people, Bear In Heaven’s lovely racket fell on deaf ears. At one point one person yelled out “Say One more song”, which was so uncalled for. They sounded great, tried to interact with the crowd to no avail but still soldiered on. They made a big fan of me and I didn’t hesitate in going to purchase their discography at the merch table and personally thank the band for a great reason for going out.
I figured the room would have filled up by the time Wire hit the stage, but sadly it did not. Touring behind their most recent album Change Becomes Us, Wire are in the midst of a creative renaissance, which resurfaced with 2011’s Red Barked Tree. This made Lee’s Palace being half full all the more sad. Sadder still is the fact such an influential band is now relegated to a club, although Lee’s remains an awesome place to see bands.
With little fuss the band hit the stage at set time and played a selection of material over their storied 30-plus years in the business. Not a flashing light in sight, the band kept it simple. The crowd’s enthusiasm had increased significantly as the set progressed. A few songs (as new as a couple of weeks old) were aired and were very strong and well received by the audience. My only surprise was how low the volume was, especially considering the volume for Bear In Heaven. Either way, the headliners made for some seriously happy salt-and-pepper heads glad they ventured out for the evening.
Thanks to Collective Concerts.
