Grizzly Bear – Milwaukee – 6/8/2009 Pabst Theatre

…Fuck Yah!

The crowd wasn’t the standard drunken, loud, semi-obnoxious, mostly hip college students Milwaukee is known for. They were here a quiet, introspective and respectful crowd that came to hear a beautiful display of harmonies that would make the Beach Boys weep.

Grizzly Bear put on a musically gorgeous show filled with melodic, put-you-in-a-trance and then bust you out of that trance with heavy and fast guitar rifts. In a nutshell, these guys are the real deal and deserve their Veckatimest album debuting at 8 on the billboards last week.

The reason I start with the crowd, is because I was unsure how people would react to the slow, beautifully orchestrated sections of their set. I knew they would be ready to hoot and holler for the up beat poppy Two Weeks, but songs like He Hit Me and I Live With You require everyone to just sit back and let the boys play, and the crowd did. It was really beautiful to hear absolute silence as the bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Chris Taylor, played the flute or the bassoon.

Really, all in all they are a band that everyone needs to see live. The most complex harmonies and musical complexities were hit on key and in stride. Really a sight to see or more appropriately a sound to hear.