Bearsuit @ St Andrews Hall – 06.02.10

by Maxie Gedge

There are many reasons why Bearsuit continue to be a good meter above most other bands from Norwich on the ‘good-ness scale’, the main one being their prolific and consistent songwriting. In fact, I would go as far to say that with each new song they write, they inch closer and closer to genius territory.

Having hiked through the most turbulent of musical existences, adding and subtracting members here and there, Bearsuit have always managed to keep a solid core who relentlessly ruin every audience that comes their way, effortlessly skipping through new styles, approaches and instruments. Tonight, their Haiti benefit gig at St. Andrews Hall is possibly the strangest time I have seen them, and probably the strangest time I have seen any band. In a massive church where the likes of The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles have played, Bearsuit are dwarfed by organs, stained glass and crucifixes, and are preceded by a Norfolkian mismatched and apparently bored reggae band. There are kids running around screaming, and a man stoned at the front with flight goggles on waving flags around his head like it’s some sort of art. The room is decked out with massive circular tables and old people, and I’m drinking Strongbow from the can. Something’s not right.

And even when Bearsuit come on and I stand up, it kind of feels like we have all been cut out of comfortableness and pasted into some jokers tea party. The sound echoes around the huge hall, but with minor bass adjustments (louder! louder!), they lock into place, really get going, and knock everyone for six. 

So then all the weirdness starts to make sense. Bearsuit push and push us all to the edge of our tastes, and leave us hanging there, in tantalising and exciting nihilism. One of their newest, ‘Train Wreck’ is a brilliant song that seduces you softly and then betrays you and butt-fucks you with dirty shouty catchy abrasiveness. And I love it. There seems to be a lot of sleazy 80s disco creeping out of their sound, and with the rhythm section tighter than a good fisting, it just makes everyone dance. Hard. And all the hooks! At any one time, Bearsuit are throwing so many interesting and brilliant hooks out there; your average band would cut off limbs for any one of them.

The new album, The Phantom Forest is out in October. It’s produced by Gareth Parton, and after tonight’s preview, I promise it will have you singing “we’ve got to get together, we’ve got to get together, we’ve got to get together, we’ve got to get it on” till the world ends.