Review: Grizzly Bear and The New Pornographers at Calvin Theater

For this concert that happened last Thursday, I did a little traveling--scratch that--a lot of traveling to get there. My mom, my brother, and I drove down to Northampton, MA (an hour's drive from the Connecticut border) to see one of our favorite modern bands, The New Pornographers.

Grizzly Bear, an Brooklyn-based folk band that has received voluptuous amounts of publicity from music blogs like Pitchfork and Stereogum, opened and they lived up to the hype. I knew from before that Grizzly Bear was a chilled-out version of Animal Collective (my recollection of one listening from their Yellow House album), so there was to be this organic, experimental folk feel to them. I had that right but the level at which they performed was stellar.

Grizzly Bear playing "Little Brother [Electric]"

Not your average opening band, Grizzly Bear played a sacred set list full of haunting and beautiful harmonies, sparse and spacious instrumentation, and lofi, psychedelic rock riffs. Although they played a great set in its entirety, the electric version of "Little Brother" found on their latest Friend EP was one of their big highlights, featuring Daniel Rossen singing an evocative hymn about his little brother. In between his singing and the sparse, lofi guitars, there was a great crescendoing guitar break down with a very hooky riff and eventually the four members of the band broke into a spooky harmonization for the bridge. Another highlight was from a brand new song, "Two Weeks", with Daniel Rossen playing a repeating and sometimes fleeting melody on an old, electronic piano and leadman Edward Droste singing a beautiful ballad, backed up by harmonizations from the other members. Grizzly Bear's overall sound was redeeming and full; if you have not given these guys the chance yet, the time has come now!

Read about The New Pornographers power-pop set after the cut!

Despite the absence of star members Neko Case and Dan Bejar, The New Pornographers pulled off a great set, even on the songs the two members were featured on. They opened up the set with the Challengers opening song, "My Rights Versus Yours", a very warming power-pop song featuring Carl Newman on the vocals with his niece Kathryn Calder doing a lot of the backup vocals along with the rest of the band. Kathryn replaced all of Neko's parts on the songs they played, and she did a really great job, alleviating the pain of Neko's abscence. Before the show, I would have thought that the show would lose a lot of its appeal without Neko there, but Kathryn really brought her own goods to the table. She was very energetic, personable and had an amazing voice.

Speaking of replacements, one of my favorite TNP songs, "Jackie Dressed in Cobras", originally sang by Dan Bejar was sung by Carl Newman and the drummer Kurt Dahle and since the studio version had a lot of instrumentation, the mantle was taken by lead guitarist Todd Fancey during the great guitar riff slam-down chorus. One of my first favorites from the band, "The Laws Have Changed", was played and Carl did his falsetto na-na-na's while Kathryn sang enthusiastically "Form a line through here, form a line to the throne" during the chorus. They played title track from Twin Cinema, another highlight of the show, bringing the band close to hard rock territory and heavy guitar riffs and borderline shouting.

The main elements that make The New Pornographers such a great band are their pop-eccentric harmonies, melodic keyboards, great guitar riffs, and backup singers to the wazoo. While a lot of their songs are fast-paced and energetic, a few of them like "Adventures in Solitude" serve as a great contrast of introspection for the band. "Challengers" was another slow song that prominently featured Kathryn and had Carl performing his backing oh-la's.

While I enjoyed the concert thoroughly, I was a little disappointed by the sound mixing because I was standing at the front of the stage and incidentally behind the PA speakers, making it so the guitar amps washed out a lot of the keyboards and vocals. While the classics like "Mass Romantic" and "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism" were still rockin' as ever, it would have been nice to hear those complimentary keyboards and synthesizers. But I don't blame the band at all; this was a mistake of the venue's. I love The New Pornographers, even with their keyboards turned down, but my gameplan goes as follows: SEE THEM AGAIN.