Love Angry Bears
There are a few occasions you get a genuine buzz about a band and after a highly successful trip to SXSW, Angry Vs The Bear are doing just that to anyone who cares to listen. Although described as ‘Electro-Pop’ their style attracts fans from many different styles including Pop-Punk and Alternative Rock and after seeing them live it does not take a brain surgeon to realise why.
With a plethora of synthesisers on stage combined with Patrick Monahan’s keytar, you know there is going to be an electro feel to the set but what you only discover from when the opening song, ‘You Make Me Want You’, kicks in is just how much they rock too. With lead singer, Mitzi Fox, dressed all in black showing she is the perfect front person, playing to the crowd at every opportunity despite the cramped space on stage with all those synthesisers. The boys alongside Mitzi, Patrick Monahan on Synth and keytar and even a conventional guitar for one song, Darren Barker on bass and synth and finally Ross Farley keeping it all together on drums, all played as if their very lives depended on it and also seemed to be using hairspray as if it was going out of fashion. This reporter is only jealous though.
The crowd were there to see the main act, The Pipettes or what’s left of them, started off fairly subdued but once ‘I Am Electric’ and ‘52’ had been played that buzz was spreading and by the time they finished the set with ‘I Sing We Sing’ Mitzi, Darren, Patrick and Ross had the crowd going wild thanks to the high energy and sheer brilliance of the songs played. Even the brand new track ‘Kill Me With Words and Pictures’ went down superbly without any hitches, despite the fears before the gig.
The set seemed to fly by way too quickly and once the cheers had died down all you could hear in the crowd was people saying “They were amazing”. One person, upon seeing Angry Vs The Bear for the first time, came up with this analogy “It’s as if Little Boots took the day off and Kate Jackson from The Long Blondes filled in for her”.
That buzz has just got so loud it feels like a swarm of bees are here.
Set List:
You Make Me Want You
I Am Electric
‘52
You Did It
Kill Me With Words and Pictures
Mystery Girl
I Sing We Sing