Minus The Bear – Viking Union – Nov 9
Western Washington University hosted Minus the Bear in the Viking Union, but first to perform were The Grand Archives, who played a live set that lasted approximately 40 minutes. The interesting thing about this band is that they did not really blend well with The Helio Sequence or Minus the Bear in terms of musical style.
Grand Archives were a tight group with most of their songs radiating trace elements of Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles. One thing that was very apparent is that although they are fantastic musicians, they really lacked a flaring, lively stage presence that one would expect to see from bands headlining shows with Minus the Bear. In other words, it’s probably in your best interest to just pop in a CD at home the next time they play in your area.
The Helio Sequence, on the other hand, was almost a polar opposite of the preceding act. Lively, dance-y, and full of musical effects in their repertoire, the Helio Sequence went on and lit up the stage. Although this is only a two-man band, they both found ways to keep your attention when performing. By far their best song of the night was, “Harmonica Song.” The one problem is that they utilized a laptop for extra effects and keyboard tracks, and this meant there was little room—if any at all—to improvise.
Drawing back upon this show, it was an extremely wise decision to line up the two opening acts the way they did. Start the night off slow and almost folk-like, move into a more experimental rock feel, and finally finish the night off with the experimental dance rock antics of Minus the Bear. This band came on strong from start to finish, playing practically every track from their new 2007 release, Planet of Ice. Beginning upbeat and starting with a melodic dance number known as “knights,” they continued to please throughout the show. The band closed their roughly 70-mminute set with the epic rock track entitled, “Lotus,” which was also coincidentally the last track on Planet of Ice.
I once heard that lead singer Jake Snider was actually sub par in the vocals department when performing live. I am here to debunk this rumor right now because his voice was crisp and album quality during the entire show. In fact, the entire band’s performance was about as structurally sound as you could get in the live setting.
