January 2010, Grizzly Bear at the Barracks in Sydney: easily one of the best live shows I’ve seen. Is there any way this band could possibly have gotten any better in 6 months? They certainly did.

The night kicked off with the two-piece Kid Sam, the Melbournian cousins rocking out songs from their self titled LP. Although it was still early, Kid Sam had a pretty decent crowd to perform to - including two very excited punters who thought that it was appropriate to “kick dance” during “We’re Mostly Made of Water”. Kid Sam played a solid set and I’m sure they won themselves some new fans!
 
Next up were the Brooklyn based band Here We Go Magic who opened with two tracks from their latest release Pigeons, “Moon” and then “Surprise”. Despite some early technical difficulties causing a slight delay, HWGM played a highly entertaining set, containing a mixture of material from their two albums, the other being the 2009 self-titled debut release.

These boys and girls from the U.S were on their first ever Australian tour and seemed to be enjoying it from the look of them mucking around on stage and chatting with the crowd. A stand out to me was bass player Jen Turner, who never stopped moving or interacting with the crowd. After playing songs “Fangela”, “Ahab”, and jamming through my favourite of the night (and their latest single) “Collector”, Luke Temple and the boys and girls of Here We Go Magic brought their set to a close, claiming they'd be back again soon. After seeing this show and hearing some of the new material, I can’t wait to get a hold of the album and will definitely be there when they return!
 
The Enmore was at near capacity when Grizzly Bear were set to start their show, which is understandable considering the wealth of live music goodness that was on offer that night. The stage was set up in GB’s unique way with the drums right up front alongside the band, and six large T’s across the stage with what lit up bottles hanging from them. Daniel, Ed, Chris and Christopher came from behind the curtain to the stage and went straight into a seemingly non-stop five or six songs including “Southern Point”, Cheerleader”, “Knife” and an amazing rendition of “Little Brother”.
 
Grizzly Bear played a near perfect set, pleasing what seemed like everyone in the theatre. So much so, in fact, that even when bass player Chris Taylor’s voice seemed to crack during “Two Weeks” he received cheers rather than jeers. After a quick throat clearing they were back on track playing songs from their first full length LP Horn of Plenty through to latest Veckatimest playing songs “On a Neck on A Spit”, “While You Wait For The Others”, “Deep Blue Sea” (off of Dark Was The Night) and “Ready, Able”, before leaving the stage for the standard encore routine.

The Enmore didn’t look like a sold out capacity show but it definitely sounded like one during those three to four minutes the boys from Brooklyn were away keeping their eager fans waiting. Thankfully, Ed Droste returned with recorder in hand to bring the night to a close with “Fix It”.

From previous experience, I expected Grizzly Bear to put on a fantastic show. And they did just that. It was both pleasure for my ears as well as my eyes, with an amazing lighting show that fit the music perfectly. Hopefully it will only be another six months before they visit our shores once again!