REVIEW: Grizzly Bear @ Electric Factory, 10/7

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REVIEW: Grizzly Bear @ Electric Factory, 10/7

POSTED: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7:59 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

Courtesy of Grizzly Bear

I think it's fair to say that if you've opened for Radiohead, the best, most zeitgeist-y band today, you're damn good. Of course, I already knew that Grizzly Bear was a great (studio) band going in ' but I'd argue that opening for Radiohead often means you're a damn great live band too, which can be a very different thing, especially when you're as ethereal/prog as Grizzly Bear. Though they started off slow, mostly in regards to vocals, by the third song, "Lullaby," they were in full swing, pulling out the flute, harp, various guitars and whatever other instruments were necessary to create one of the fullest sounds I've ever heard out of a live band. In fact, they even pulled out Victoria Legrand, the lead singer of B-more dream pop band Beach House, their opener, to do some vocals. It was a new song, they said, based on "Victoria's freshman experience" ' titled "Freshman 15," she lamely-cutely joked ' and one that made me truly wish I hadn't missed most of Beach House's performance. (Where in this town other than the Electric Factory do shows start on time?!) Most impressive, though, was the fact that Grizzly Bear's show made me re-think the band, ask myself questions about how I saw it ' why had I not realized before how '80s their vocals were? why were they making me think of Floyd? why hadn't I noticed how cute Chris Taylor's hair was? ' which, in the end, is even better than opening for Radiohead.

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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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