After a rip-roaring weekend, first at Thorpe Park, and then at Alton Towers – Miss A and I had an appointment on Monday evening with Bears Den at The Forge, Camden. Bears Den are pretty new to me as a band, Miss A has followed them for a while. I’ve never seen them live before and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Their new album ‘Red Earth & Pouring Rain‘ is largely electronic, with synthesizers and drum machines ahoy! I knew it would be a stripped, laid back, acoustic set for a small audience.
A small audience we were, there were probably 60 of us sat in the performance area, facing a tiny stage. The band took to the stage and belted out some of the tracks from Red Earth. I genuinely love that album, and it was wonderful to hear these songs stripped right back. This was an acoustic set in the truest of forms. No electronic instruments, no amps, no microphones either (aside from two to capture audio for the live Facebook stream). The guys were clearly humbled by the audience, and also nervous there was ‘no place to hide’. They had no need to be humble, or nervous – they were bloody incredible!
When a performance is stripped back like that, you can hear every nuance and note – they aced it. Perfect harmonies and flawless guitar playing through every song. I was so sad when it came to an end – I wanted more. In the middle of the set they admitted their love for Bryan Adams and his music, before covering ‘Heaven’ in their stripped back style. Heaven it certainly was.
At the end of the gig the guys were hanging out at the bar meeting their fans. I felt a bit of an ‘imposter’ taking away their time with the long term fans, but had a moment to thank Kevin for the show. I was extremely thankful, it was fantastic evening and I can’t wait to see them again.
As some of the gig was streamed live on Facebook, you can watch it too – not sure how long the link will be live for, enjoy!
