Boy & Bear [live review]

Palais Theatre, Melbourne – Friday 5 September 2014
With: Holy Holy
Step foot inside the Palais Theatre and the first thing people will do is look up. In life it’s often said to surround yourself with beautiful things, and Boy & Bear has certainly kept this is mind when they added the iconic venue to their tour.
As far as beautiful things go, the music from supporting band Holy Holy is pretty close. The professionalism that the boys exhibited makes you really wonder why they aren’t doing their own tour. While the band still has a few teething issues in their live performance, mainly their stage presence, these are easily things that come with time. ‘A Heroin’ was a standout that would have had everyone dancing, if only the venue allowed it. Though we all came to see one band: Boy & Bear.
Lights out, the silhouettes enter the stage and the crowd goes wild – exactly the entrance we should expect from a band this big. Without a moment to waste, the band kicks into action and seamlessly flow from hit to hit. There’s this strange atmosphere when the boys get on stage and all I can pin it to is their extreme comfort on stage. Banter of girlfriends and jungle animals come from the bandmates with ease and you get a rare insight into who they are as people, not just musicians.
The band also stayed true to their promise of no encore performances, though with a solid near one-and-a-half hour set it’s simply not needed.
By Amanda Sherring