Minus the Bear in Tampa

Friday, 14 May 2010 11:14

Minus the Bear recently toured through the state, including a Ritz Ybor performance in Tampa, which I attended. This, for me, was an exploratory concert. Though I had heard of Minus the Bear, I had little knowledge of the band, short of knowing they’re from Seattle and considered an indie group.

Story and Photos by John Davisson

I could go off on a tangent about the "indie" label and how it has morphed into a catchall that means nothing really. To me, indie bands are pretentious, shoe-gazing slackers that think they are above performing. They bore me generally; if they seem bored and uninterested, I usually end up bored and want to bail. But I like to try new bands.

The night before the show, I listened to some of their videos on the Internet and decided that I liked them. The songs were catchy with pop hooks. So I was hopeful. I dig some of the recent Seattle bands; the grunge fad is finally subsiding, making room for wonderful Seattle exports like Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes.

I arrived to the show late. Not that late, though. I missed the first opener—they must have only played 20 minutes—but arrived in time for Everest, a San Francisco band. I had seen them before, and like before, they were good. But not great. Musically, there isn’t anything about them that grabs or excites me. But they aren’t offensive. For an opener, they did fine with upbeat rock. They’re probably an indie band, but they are too energetic to fit my definition of indie (which is almost certainly different from your definition).

Then Minus the Bear was up. With colorful lights, great songs and lively energy, the band nabbed my attention from the start. This wasn’t indie; there was no mopish or self-effacing ambiance. I was pleased.

For some reason, I thought of The Shins. I saw The Shins at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, Calif., with a friend who went there to photograph them. We parked in a neighborhood and walked a few blocks to the venue. We walked past some trees that had platforms with people living in them. I learned they were there to protect the trees from developers. True tree-huggers—only in Berkeley, I thought. Then I watched part of the show by The Shins, a band I heard was indie. And I liked them. And now I like this indie band called Minus the Bear. Maybe I do like indie music. Now I need to find out what isn’t indie, I guess.

The more I watched Minus the Bear, the more intrigued I became. One moment, I was fixated on lead guitarist Dave Knudson and his fascination for staccato, almost percussive but clean chord-voicings. And when the tempo picked up, I focused on the grooves, which sounded both loose and structured. Then there was keyboardist Alex Rose who used sequencers to repeat phrases and add textures. He also added a pop sheen to the songs—the kind that tugged at your ears.