The Governor Hindmarsh. 9 May 2012
One of the nice things about music is that there’s always something new to discover. Sometimes discoveries are made at the very inception of an artist’s musical life, and other times, it’s when things are a little more well-seasoned. For me, the latter is certainly true when it comes to Sydney quintet Boy & Bear. With their British pub-sounding name, I’d definitely heard of the group before, and had an idea of what their music was, but it wasn’t until tonight when I actually discovered who they really were, and I have to say, I was impressed.
The show at the Gov signalled the start of a big national tour for Boy & Bear, and there was certainly a lot of excitement in the air. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to see the first act Tin Sparrow, but made it just as the second support act, Jungle Giants hit the stage. These guys were certainly very young, but exhibited a reasonable prowess beyond their years. Their poppy rock music was fairly energetic, and was reminiscent of ’80s rockers like Lou Reed and Violent Femmes. They definitely have some decent potential, so we’ll see where they go from here…
Of course, it was Boy & Bear who everyone had come to see, and soon after Jungle Giants, it was time for the boys to take the stage. With smoke machines billowing and ethereal lighting, the band came on to a rising crescendo of audience applause, and continued the slow build with their music, starting slowly and gently before ramping things up, much to the delight of the near-capacity crowd. While most of the tunes the band played were not new, they were new for me, and before long I found myself tapping away!
The enthusiasm of the punters around me definitely helped the mood; in fact, it was hard for me to tell which were the famous songs, as each number received raucous applause! The band did play a couple of newbies in the set, including one world-debut performance, and they went down remarkably well! There were a couple of covers in the set too, with Crowded House’s Fall At Your Feet containing snippets of Neil Young’s Heart Of Gold in the middle, both going down very nicely! By the end of the show, the band had convinced me of their virtue, and I’m happy to report that I had rather a good time! Great show boys! And bear!
Luke Balzan
When: Closed
Where: The Gov
Bookings: Closed
Photography by Aaron Vinall
