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POP MUSIC
Grizzly Bear
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Despite its unassuming stage presence -- all skinny jeans, floppy hair and shoe gazing -- psychedelic folk quartet Grizzly Bear evoked the sonic sweep of both an orchestra and Led Zeppelin on the Black Cat stage Sunday night.
Edward Droste, the Brooklyn band's founder and one of its two chief songwriters, kicked off the show by announcing that the band had missed an October date in Washington with TV on the Radio because of vehicular troubles, making this the group's first D.C. show since blogs and music publications had begun to lavish high praise. So the pressure was on to make an impression, and that is what Grizzly Bear did. If not always thrilling, the aural experimentation was definitely satisfying.
The band is known for its flute, recorder, layered electronic noises and harmonies, but live, the electronica was minimal and the songs' meandering tendencies became the focus, their swerving tempos and general shape-shifting punctuated by rumbling guitars and off-kilter drums.
It had the effect of amplifying the psychedelic influences, notably early 1970s rock acts including Zeppelin, though the night's one cover was a '60s tune, the Crystals' "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)."
Perhaps it was best that Grizzly Bear missed its last show here. The crowd had clearly had time to steep in the pleasant swirl of Droste and company's last record, "Yellow House," and shouted requests between songs. The band even indulged one, playing a sparkling rendition of the album's gorgeous closer, "Colorado."
But no dice on the calls for "Marla," a 1930s-era waltz written by Droste's great-aunt and reworked by the band; to play that song, Droste joked, the Cat stage would need a grand piano.
-- Lavanya Ramanathan
