CONCERT REVIEW: Seabear @ Kung Fu Necktie 3/24

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CONCERT REVIEW: Seabear @ Kung Fu Necktie 3/24

POSTED: Thursday, March 25, 2010, 8:30 PM

Filed Under: Music Concert Review

Photo | Patrick Rapa

Lion Faced Boy: Seabear's Sindri Már Sigfússon

When a band with as quiet a record as Seabear's We Built a Fire (Morr Music) comes to town, there's always that moment of doubt about catching them live: Will this show be a total snoozefest? Will I have wished I'd stayed at home and listened to the album in my big foamy headphones?

As the Icelandic septet slowly filled every nook of the little stage in the back of Kung Fu Necktie, carting all manner of instrumentation with them, taping things into place to ensure they were not knocked over by their own jostling, it was apparent that this would be worth the late-night bike ride under the El.

Led by sleepy-eyed guitarist/singer Sindri Már Sigfússon, the band sprung into their set, looking not unlike the world's most densely populated music box. Sigfússon's heavily accented vocals were buttressed by backing vocals from spritely Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdottir (violin, trumpet harmonica), Sóley StefánsdóttÃr (keyboards), Halldór Ãrn Ragnarsson (bass), Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason (drums) and a guy I belive to be EirÃkur Rafn Stefánsson (horns) while Ãrn Ingi Ágústsson (guitar) did his talking with his hands.

Photo | Patrick Rapa

Hornmonica: Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdottir

The big group displayed great dynamic range, from the chill of "Cold Summer" to stomp of "Cat Piano" to the growl of "Lion Faced Boy" to the slow roar of "I'll Build You a Fire." More Belle and Sebastian than Sigur Rós, the band gets a lot of mileage out of its folk-troupe leanings, deep instrumentation pool and knack for sing-songy, hum-along-ready vocal lines. The ladies of Seabear, Guðmundsdottir and StefánsdóttÃr, formed a frenetic, chirpy, infectiously ebullient backing choir to many of the songs.

Despite his halting English, Sigfússon made coy banter with a crowd that seemed both smitten and unsure of what to make of the heavily tattooed wisp of a frontman. "If any of you have cameras on your phones... or cameras on your cameras... to record things — I hear that's what the kids are doing these days," he said with an off-beat timing that rendered it at once hilarious and endearing. He handled with grace that peculiarly Philly practice of demanding requests by slipping seamlessly into "I Sing I Swim" from 2007's The Ghost That Carried Us Away.

In inviting the crowd to sing along on the set-closing "Seashell," he explained, "This won't be like a typical rock show, with "I say Sea, you say Bear. Sea! Bear! Sea! Bear!" before letting StefánsdóttÃr instruct the "ahh-ahhh-ah-ah-ah-ahhh"s.

Theirs is a music of place, a sonic manifestation of terroir, each song conjuring, like so many Icelandic bands, images of haunted, volcanic, glacial panoramas. And as good as Seabear's carefully crafted, delicate albums are, their live show — layered, intricate and intimate — takes the music to another plane entirely.

RELATED >> We Built a Fire reviewed

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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