FREELANCE WHALESBEAR IN HEAVENCYMBALS EAT GUITARS

Will's Pub, Orlando

Saturday night's show was much like a sandwich. The bread (opening & headling acts) was good, sound, tasty enough, but it was the content in between (bear in heaven) that was eyes-roll-back-in-head delicious. Jon Philpot's voice is unreal. Pure, otherworldly, beautiful, almost eerie at times. It was hard to stop staring at him, no joke, wondering how he was blessed with such pipes. But Joe Stickney did manage to distract. What a killer, happy, grooving drummer. Adam Wills, you ruled too, despite all hurdles (broken guitar string, food poisoning? etc.). There wasn't an instant I wasn't totally feeling Bear in Heaven. Not one. Mad glad I made the trek from West Palm to catch them. 

I purchased their recent release, Beast Rest Forth Mouth impulsively. Bravo to my impulses. It lingered in the "recently added" section of my itunes getting its fair play throughout my day. (Note: "recently added" is a folder of sorts that exists within your itunes library. It's ever evolving as you add new music to your itunes & i LIVE in my recently added section. I have to pry myself away from it from time to time.) Then at some point Beast Rest Forth Mouth kicked the hell in. I cranked up the volume. I clicked the repeat endlessly button. I likely drove those around me mad. I did not care. Nuances I hadn't caught originally came to light. And it dawned on me, "holy sh!t you can DANCE to this stuff!" And witnessing them live, I did. Nonstop. By myself. (WHAT IS UP ORLANDO???? Loosen up, feeeel it. MOVE.) Jon's banter between songs & during guitar troubles was dry & amusing. "Anybody got any specific drum beat they wanna hear? He can do it." He said with a straight face. Joe jokingly, yet, skillfully broke into various beats. My cohorts did not stop speaking about how he was easily the best drummer they'd witnessed in a long time.


Had a chance to speak to each member of the band afterwards, got such a rad vibe. They're modest as hell. Affable. Clever. Humorous. And they told me they'd return. And not just to Florida, but to South Florida (Adam even joked that he'd like Bear in Heaven to play at The Breakers Hotel, Palm Beach)  so cross all your fingers & toes, NOW. Thanks. 

The German was kind enough to capture some video of the show for me. Dig in:














Don't skip a single song on this album. While tracks 'You Do You' and 'Lovesick Teenagers' might be the ones getting air play on stations like XM's XMU, the remaining eight tracks are equally as brilliant if not better. Dust cloud is hypnotic. Wholehearted mess. Fake Out. Listen, the whole album rules. Please listen. Please buy. Please check them out live should life grant you the blissful opportunity.

love,
sunlovey