It was a soggy night in Sydney and having never attended the Becks Festival Bar before I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than knowing that it was a temporary venue. On the other hand, expectations were high for another stellar performance from Grizzly Bear, having seen them only two nights prior. (Review here.)

Patrick Watson was support on the night but due to earlier engagements I unfortunately wasn’t able to catch the entire set. It wasn’t the only unfortunate event, the other was having to stand on outside of the marquee. The view wasn’t the problem it was more the gloomy clouds illuminated by the cities lights. For the few songs I caught of Patrick Watson he seemed to write very beautiful sounding songs. Then the clincher for me to check more of his material, was charming the crowd by doing a song right in the thick of the Becks Festival Bar marquee. He went half way down to put on a weird backpack style contraption with four megaphone speakers pointing each direction. The song was a very bluesy number with the rest of the band with him carrying percussive instruments and another a guitar. The Sydney Festival crowd was lapping it up, clapping along to the beat. Patrick Watson had done a superb job of warming the crowd for Grizzly Bears only Sydney show outside of the City Recital Hall. The original supports for the show were meant to be North Queenslanders, The Middle East, but due to a collar bone injury in the band had to pull out. Considering it was Watson’s second show three hours and still sounded as if he was giving it his all is a great testament to the musicians pride in his music. (Check out a review of the show he played prior, here.)

The rain began to slowly trickle down as Grizzly Bear began setting up their gear and heavier rain was looking inevitable. It also became of obvious in the twenty minute set up period why venue don’t use glass or serve alcohol in bottles. Broken glass littered the slightly raised wooden platforms proving a hazard for any of those in open footwear.

Time had passed and Grizzly Bear took to the stage. Similar to the City Recital Hall show I had attended two nights earlier the band chose to open with Southern Point. I feel that opening with the first track to the most recent album is a great way to get settled into a set as it felt as if we were listening to the start of the album but in live form.

Although I didn’t expect anything to great from the temporary Becks marquee sound wise it didn’t sound to bad. You would be a fool to think that it would stand any chance against the City Recital Hall though. The set featured song from all three albums and was quite similar to the set witnessed earlier in the week only substituting a maximum of three to four songs.

Sometimes in bands with two singers unless listening very intently, you fail to realise who is singing on what tracks. It came as a slight surprise how many songs Dan Rossen (Lead Guitar) sings on. Rossen also a singer in his side project Department of Eagles, possesses very interesting timbrel qualities in his voice sounding like an old man with a slight waver with each word.

Chris Taylor the multi instrumentalist of that band and backing/vocal harmoniser in the band was another interesting member of the band to watch constantly dropping to his haunches to play looped phrases of saxophone, clarinet and flute. Building up a wall of slightly dissonant but relevant sound. Along with interesting backing vocals put through a tremolo effect you cannot help but feel the hypnotic effects he put over you.

Drummer Chris bear with a rather large drum kit set up with pads for lower bass drum notes and occasionally breaking out the glockenspiel with its rather fairytale sounding tones. Oh and also playing the drums and playing them well, how could I forget?

The singer and former twitter superstar of the band Ed Droste who looks slightly awkward but well experienced performing live. Playing tambourine and tapping away at his Omni chord and synthesiser. Special mention to Droste who brought out the primary school nostalgia in the crowd, taking out a recorder to perform Fix It from debut album Horn of Plenty.

The set brought a good mixture song from the albums and featured many of the fan favourites including Knife, While You Wait For The Others, Two Weeks and one of my favourites On A Neck On A Spit. The Becks Festival Bar gig wrapped up a fairly grizzly start to the week and am extremely happy to have gotten tickets in the massive rush when tickets went on sale.