Both bands have come under the kind of press coverage recently that keeps them cool, yet has seen them blown into the musical masses, and gathered fantastic support.
Beach House, a three-piece, from Baltimore, America, produce some of the most atmospheric, and tenderly beautiful music I've heard in recent years, and their third album, 'Teen Dream', is one of the best of the year already.
Their music can be compared to likes of Brian Wilson, with the slow rhythms and haunting lyrics, delivered with the same power of Patti Smith by front woman, Victoria Legrand, and with their impressive on stage light show, visually and musically, it was quite something to experience.
Their set dipped in all three of their albums, including their two previous efforts titled 'Beach House' and 'Devotion', delivering a set which made me wonder how the evening's headliners were going to top their performance.
The highlight was definitely recent single 'Norway', which if you haven't heard, is a definite recommendation, with its slow building guitars and powerful vocals, really coming through in the performance well.
I first saw Grizzly Bear perform last summer, at an All Tomorrow's Parties festival, and were definitely my highlight of the weekend.
The Brooklyn based, 4-piece, now onto their second album as a quartet, have continually impressed both live and on record, and as one of the few electronic acts on Warp records, have seemingly defied all boundaries to produce some fantastic music.
Their latest album, 'Veckatimest', released in May 2009, has seen the band endure their most successful period; having toured with Radiohead, and seeing their album prove very successful in their native America.
That success has transcended to this country and tonight's show for them can only be hailed as a success.
Unfortunately after having to cut their set a song short, after bassist, Chris Taylor, had been struck down with food poisoning earlier that day, and the fantastic performance of Beach House, Grizzly Bear rose to the occasion, and provided an almost perfect performance.
Highlights of the set were mainly from their latter album, including 'Foreground' and 'Cheerleader', but the definite highlights of the night were the two songs that Grizzly bear performed with Beach House singer, Legrand, and they were 'Slow Life', which has been co-written between the two parties especially for the 'Twilight Saga' film, and 'Two Weeks', which with Legrand's sublime voice, combined the band already fantastic harmonies, produced a fantastic rendition.
The band, describable as a cross between 'psychedelic pop, folk rock, experimental indie and alternative music', definitely defy an easy explanation, and perhaps that's why this band are so talented in their writing and their producing.
Live, they're certainly something, leaving you spell bound on their performance, making everyone take notice, and ultimately proving that they can upstage any fantastic performance.
article by: Anthony Hetherington
published: 12/03/2010 14:57
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.