Bear in Heaven – “Wholehearted Mess”

Success and fame, even at the indie level, comes with a price. People will find the most ridiculous illogical ways to criticize you.

“just watched this public service announcement thing by adam from bear in heaven.  interviewed this guy a few months ago for the blog i used to run, but it was over email so i never put a name to a face.  glad i didn’t.  based on beast rest forth mouth i kinda always pictured the bears in heaven as like dr. manhattan from watchmen, blue, probably from outer space, totally transcendent of fashion, culture, and “coolness,” but now that i see this adam guy is another pea coat-wearing mustachioed hipster i’m kinda disappointed.  my mental image of bear in heaven is dead.”—carltonbanks.net

Luckily, my enjoyment of a band’s music is solely based on the music itself. If the wardrobe choices of Bear in Heaven is of concern, I’ll note that they took the stage dressed in 2 mustaches and a mountain-man beard as they made their triumphant return to Brooklyn on Friday night with a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Even if this band were to dress in stereotypical hipster garb like neon, American Apparel onesies and fannypacks—thankfully they don’t—it wouldn’t take away the fact that they are one of Brooklyn’s best bands.

Following a sudden rise to popularity after years of toiling under the radar, Bear in Heaven has seen all of the hard work coming to fruition. Their recent long tour with Cymbals Eat Guitars seems to be only the beginning with an upcoming European tour coming in a few days, only to be followed with US tour dates opening for Metric.

Back in December, fellow NY Press writer wrote of Bear in Heaven’s performance at Webster Hall opening for Mew:

“as a live band, Bear has a ways to go: a lot of sonic nuance is lost in Webster Hall’s sound system, but BiH’s dependence on reverb and synth lines that seemed to drown out everything else hardly did the band any favors on Friday night.”

I was at the same show. Bear In Heaven sounded massive, but weren’t mixed to greatest compliment their sound. Rare is the case that Bear in Heaven has had the chance to play NYC venues with a sound big enough to handle them. With that changing, the band has made adjustments and after the extensive touring, the performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg proved just how incredible Bear in Heaven can sound in the live setting. Unlike past concerts, Jon Philpot’s distorted vocals were mixed high enough to avoid being buried by Joe Stickney’s ferocious drummer, and the doomsday drone of Adam Willis’ guitar and Philpot’s keyboards. Bear in Heaven sound wholly original during a time period of complete oversaturation. And what make Bear in Heaven stand out is not the effects used, but rather the songs themselves with contain an incredible level of melody and technical skill. Unlike the current chillwave bands who’ve become the big movement, you can strip down songs like “Lovesick Teenagers” and “Wholehearted Mess” to their barest elements and they’ll remain solid songs. It would be very interesting to see Bear in Heaven play an acoustic set.

During their outstanding homecoming performance, Jessica and Cristi Jo Zambri joined Bear In Heaven on stage with complimentary backing vocals on “Lovesick Teenagers” and set closer “Casual Goodbye.”

Following them, as they have for the entire tour, Cymbals Eat Guitars sounded like the lesser band, despite the headline position. Opening with the caterwaul of “And The Hazy Sea,” they sounded promising, like on record, but something felt lacking. Cymbals Eat Guitars show incredible strength in the return to the guitar heavy sounds of 90s indie, but unlike their most obvious influence Built to Spill, their sounds seem to lack the level of melody necessary to make them memorable. The powerful guitars continue to make me want to like this band far more than I actually do like them, and following Bear In Heaven’s highly melodic songs, Cymbals’ biggest flaw just became too clear to disregard. They’re a young band who could potentially release an epic record, but they’ll need to recognize their weaknesses and rather than hide them behind great riffs, they’ll need to develop their songwriting.