Grizzly Bear, Beach House: floating on an effervescent sea of loveliness

The Roundhouse
13 & 14 March 2010 (both nights, lucky ol' me)

The Grizzlers were predictably sumptuous; they are completely at the top of their game, and The Roundhouse gave them scope to let rip.

Above and beyond delivering their set in immaculate fashion, there seem to be some developments afoot. Segways have now started to appear between some of the tunes, rather than treating each song as a complete stand-alone entity. Subtle variations are also apparent in some of the arrangements, and where I had felt at previous shows that precisely replicating the recordings was the aim, the signs are that a gently developing approach is being taken to live shows as a new opportunity. I hope that this route is pursued, as they are clearly up to the task of finding a parallel life for their music in the live forum.

I could witter on about how some concerns with a slight imbalance in the sound mix on Saturday were fixed on Sunday, but that kind of thing is a bit dull, frankly. Instead I shall mention that there were just a couple of changes to the set list between the two nights, and that when the boys were joined by Victoria from Beach House the quintuple harmony was breathtaking. Harmonies generally are widely documented as a strong suit of live Grizzly action, but 5 > 4. My personal good fortune has been to see Victoria join the band now on four of the five times I have seen them.

So - is a ticket to Latitude required to catch the next installment, or will there be a London show to help balance the books? Hmm....

Oh, and Beach House. They do have a few good songs, and they make a nice sound, but the music is rather one-paced, so an extended hearing doesn't really help distinguish one thing from another. Zebra and Gila stand out, from the current and previous albums, but a certain dynamic is lacking.

And because it made me so happy on Saturday, I crossed my fingers and hoped that the same treat would be in store for us as encore on Sunday, and it was. So - my first attempt at a video: All We Ask

Grizzly Bear, London, Sunday 14th March 2010 from Gone Tothedogs on Vimeo.