Bear Hands: A Photographers’ Postmortem

Or, “Journey Through the Eclectic-Dissociative Effect”

Saturday night: Bear Hands. Eclectic. Damn. Adjectives that come to mind: raucous, involved, loud, draining, “better than Burning Bush Supper Club.” Thing that ensued: crowd-surfing, tinnitus, alumni pride, injury, drunken buffoonery. Apache Kid and Tony Castles (who played a really, really good set, and also amusingly tweeted about us) opened.

But this will not be a thoughtfully articulated review. (If that’s what you’re looking for, try today’s Argus Arts page. [Or the Ampersand. (Just kidding.)]) Instead, I offer a gallery of compelling images from Saturday night’s fantastic show—a few from Tony Castles’ set, too—and, at no extra charge, a semicoherent Gchat postmortem between the photographers who took them (namely, me and Rachel Pincus ’13). Enjoy. And good show, guys.

• me: You got good shots of that crowd FREAKIN OUTTT.
• Rachel: yeah holy moly
• Rachel: so many sourpusses, funnypusses and interestingpusses
• Rachel: a full cast of characters on parade
• me: the Eclectic member who bitched at those drunk fucks to “MOVE BACK THREE INCHES”
• me: was a highlight.
• me: But the band was into it.
• Rachel: I don’t quite remember that. must be the eclectic-dissociative effect
• me: and “Burning Bush Supper whatever” sounds so much better live.
• me: It was like 2/3 through the show.
• me: unless I dreamt this
• Rachel: oh, that’s the stuff of photographer’s dreams

• Rachel: I have to say, “Julien” was a song I could really get into
• Rachel: even if it was about some obscure art film mentioned in a textbook I read for Dombrowski’s class
• me: What film?
• Rachel: “julien donkey boy”
• me: I dig “Crime Pays” a lot.
• me: hip enough that I haven’t seen it.
• Rachel: I haven’t seen it either, but it’s on my radar
• Rachel: apparently it uses some unusual film printing techniques
• Rachel: and it’s directed by the person who directed “kids”
• Rachel: by the same token… “crime pays” was on skins recently I hear

• me: The other thing I really liked about Bear Hands
• me: is that they didn’t croon any lullabies to their babies.
• Rachel: what I liked about My Brightest Diamond is that her presence did not result in any head injuries
• me: Did you experience head injuries?
• Rachel: one of my hallmates did
• Rachel: apparently she’s been walking around with a giant gash in the back for her head for a few days
• Rachel: but I haven’t seen the gash
• me: oh shit
• Rachel: but whatever
• Rachel: she seems okay?
• me: Sue Bear Hands.
• me: I know someone with great lawyer parents
• me: and by “someone” i mean “everyone.”
• Rachel: Great Lawyer Parents = band name
• me: Great Lawyer Parents @ Eclectic
• me: with Apache Kid + Wet Nurse
• me: could be an actual Wesleying post.

• Rachel: I kind of ended up orbiting the stage
• Rachel: due to crowd movements
• Rachel: so I got some interesting angles
• Rachel: but the band wasn’t especially interesting to photograph
• me: True.
• me: The speaker nearly crushed me at least two times.
• Rachel: ahahhaa oh no
• Rachel: the people in the front row kept getting pushed on their hands and knees repeatedly I noticed
• Rachel: the excitement was almost as intense as for titus
• me: yep.
• Rachel: which makes me question why we get so excited for certain shows
• Rachel: and not for others
• Rachel: teengirl fantasy was deserted

• me: hardcore argument in the Argus office right now.
• me: on whether Bear Hands should be referred to singular or plural.
• Rachel: singular I think?
• me: Rob’s getting worked up.
• me: which is okay
• me: because THIS SHIT MATTERS GODAMMIT.
• Rachel: oh I know
• Rachel: how the pitchfork police can be
• me: “IS REVERBER EVEN A WORD???”
• me: LOL, just suggested “reverb-drenched.”
• Rachel: hahahaha
• me: They’re editing the Bear Hands review
• me: and I’m enough of a music snob fuck to be of assistance.
• Rachel: did you guys get your Iguanas Ranas?
• Rachel: I’m starting to wish I went over there… hah
• me: It’s Vegan food.
• me: from some place.
• Rachel: I’m a vegetarian, I should check out “some place” sometime
• me: It’s called “Ion”?
• Rachel: ohh!
• Rachel: of course I’ve been to their supermarket
• me: It’s okay.
• Rachel: vegan food is making rob irritable.
• Rachel: he’s feeling his oats

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[No Argus editors were harmed in the making of this post.]