[phlipcam video + review] Bear Hands @ the Paradise
Brooklyn-based
indie-kids BEAR HANDS have toured with Passion Pit, so I can only
imagine that when they booked last night's gig with Awolnation, the
overwhelming sentiment was "shit, what a drag."
Or
maybe not. It could be that I was the only one at the Paradise last
night that thought that the vibe of headliner Awolnation's show was like walking into the
party scene of a bro-tastic teen movie circa 1997. Within 15 minutes of being there, my friend pointed out that she had counted three
grown men in ball chain necklaces.
When was the last time you saw even one grown man in a ball chain
necklace? That was strike one.
I should confess I'd never heard Awolnation
[Aaron Bruno's of Under the Influence of Giants latest project] before
last night. I came to see Bear Hands who, despite needing to smooth some
of the rough edges off their stage presence (dudes are a little stiff), played a damn good -- albeit all too
short -- opening set. It bears mentioning that they have an instrument
that looks like (and I want to say definitely is) a softball shoved on
top of a maraca that bassist Val Lopers employs as secondary percussion
from time to time.
Watch em' play the last song of their short set, "Tablasaurus," below.
Then
it was time for Aaron Bruno and Co. -- whose live sound can only be
described as music to party to -- to take the stage. Watch the video below for
explanation. Bruno peacocked around the stage like he was Jagger playing
the Fillmore. Though I will say that his sense of showmanship,
overblown or not, made Bear Hands' set look like high school band
practice.
I'm going to leave the vid to speak for itself because I made it through
just three Awolnation songs before I had to take myself home. My
post-show Googles revealed that people seem to really dig them. Maybe
the show got better after I left. I'll never know.
But yeah, Bear Hands --
check them out next time they come around and are, hopefully, headlining their own gig.