Minus the Bear - O'Brother -- Rock'n'Roll Hotel - Oct 19 2014

O'Brother - I have already decided that the state of Georgia was a surprisingly fertile land for some extremely interesting heavy bands, Mastodon and Kylesa being the most famous of the bunch. So I am not surprised to expand my list further with these eight year veterans I am catching up with finally. They start out ultra heavy with three guitars blazing away atop the powerful rhythm section. There are strange trebly runs that invoke indie rock that has me thinking they are too indie for the doom crowd and possibly too doom for the indie crowd. But they are so good, they can probably pull in a majority of anyone who likes things heavy and creative. The vocals are surprisingly strong as the remind me quite a bit of Queens of the Stone Age at their steadiest and heaviest style. Or perhaps it is as if Josh Homme was jamming with Mogwai? There songs vary enough primarily through the vocal work, that any more comparisons are not terribly important. They impressed me a bunch and this sold out room was warm to them as well. Great start and worth the price of admission alone.

Minus the Bear - But why quit after a great opening set, when you get one of the strongest bands coming out of Seattle since a certain movement captivated the world a couple of decades back? No one was quitting as the packed house was fully engaged in this band's set. Their sound was inviting, but with a cool side to it as well, which they managed to integrate without any awkward transitions. This showed great skill as if Magazine was integrated with Echo & the Bunnymen or the Teardrop Explodes. Or perhaps Minus the Bear's neo-psyche approach is worked into strong songs that could be adapted to other rock styles? The formula is not exactly clear to me, which is always a good thing as it shows this band has confidently taken a creative path resulting in music that is so easy to get into, without being forgotten amidst dozens of other similar bands. I left completely convinced of this band's skill and power.

Photo grab of the Night... This was a facebook post from Christ Stein via Tim Sommer. It follows one of my favorite games of comparing photos in very odd ways... So here we have a fire eating bass player with a scroll eating avenger.