Ready, Able

So tonight was a special treat. Instead of spending the usual Wednesday night studying for my weekly quiz, I saw Grizzly Bear + St. Vincent at Postbanhof. The old train-station-turned-venue was (surprisingly) full. I knew Grizzly Bear had a big following, but this was jam-packed full. The I-can-smell-my-neighbor's-breath full. The amount of people that attended tonight put a smile to my face, although I could have used more room for those powerful sways I built up...

Needless to say, it was great. St. Vincent was surprising, and I appreciate her live performances so much--it captures the layers of her sound so much better than through listening to her singles. She's a one-women force-of-nature, and she's got this shy mystique to her. She didn't really say much in between songs, but just let the music do the talking for her. The lights definitely helped add to the songs, and for a couple tracks, she would fade out with the lights as fog filled the void. Like a magician, she was gone. Charming.

And Grizzly Bear... sigh. Beautiful. I caught myself closing my eyes one too many times. I just wanted to soak it all in. It wasn't a dance-till-my-feet-hurt show, but that's not what you expect from GB. One asks for mellow musings, for passion, for simple lyrics that don't make sense but somehow do... the harmonies, the melting of the voices... so lovely and eerie (jordan axt would kill me for using this word, but I really don't know how else to explain it!) Eerie because it seems so unreal. But all at once, I felt so at peace with the world. "Knife" was great, "Two Weeks" was fantastic. But I think the highlight was "Deep Blue Sea." Great song to begin with, but add voice layering to the acoustics... and I die. They played a lot of songs from Veckatimest, expected and appreciated. I like the new album, but after seeing it live, I can enjoy it more. I've been listening to Horn of Plenty a lot recently... the older stuff is so different but I love the simplicity of it all.

Fun Fact: Ed Droste apparently lived in Berlin for one year back in 2001. He whipped out some German, which was so adorable. See, this is why I need to come back to Berlin to live. Because I could start the next great... Brooklyn Band. Clearly.

I'll repost their newest music video so you can enjoy some Grizzly Bear fantasticness.