Grizzly Bear
With Majical Cloudz
Fillmore Miami Beach
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Better Than: A real bear attack on the beach.
Nope ... The Grizzly Bear isn't native to South Florida.
Maybe that's why, as the Brooklyn band admits: "It's been seven years since we played Florida. And this is our very first time in Miami."
See also:
-Three Reasons Grizzly Bear Isn't Some Snobby Hipster Indie Band
-Grizzly Bear at the Fillmore Miami Beach: The 31-Photo Slideshow
Last night, though, this ursine indie band from New York City's coolest borough finally made its local debut at the Fillmore Miami Beach for an intimately large crowd of enthusiastic admirers.
"Miami!" the Grizzly Bear crew cooed. "Thanks so much for the warm welcome!"
Of course, though, the show started with an opening band: Two-man Montreal mood machine Majical Cloudz and a 45-minute set of self-described "slow, sad songs."
One mop-headed member stood bent over an electronics setup, tweaking knobs, looping keyboard samples, and swaying meditatively while the bald, singing member strangled a mic at center stage, twitching spastically and moaning soulfully through artsy, post-alternative, Radiohead-style rock hymns that echoed through the cathedral-like Fillmore.
"This is a lot more space than we know what to do with," the hairless Majical Cloudz dude deadpanned. "We're tiny room people. We live in tiny rooms, we play tiny rooms. So big rooms kinda freak us out."
Less than a quarter-hour later, the Grizzly Bear guys filed out onto a Dade County stage for the first time ... Ever.
They were all smiling, from floppy-haired singer Ed Droste to guitar guy Dan Rossen, bassist Chris Taylor, and drummer Christopher Bear.
Yes, the whole crew seemed truly blissed out over visiting the subtropics. "We don't know," the Grizzlies bashfully acknowledged, "what took us so long."
