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Heather Golder


Minus the Bear packed Amoeba Berkeley with a record-breaking crowd on August 22nd.  The Seattle-based quintet played more than half of the tracks off of their brand-new album, Planet of Ice, and added in two songs from their much-loved 2005 release, Menos el Oso.  By the time the band stepped on stage at six, the crowd filled the entire lower half of the store and overflowed out to the sidewalk on Telegraph (a quick headcount during the final song had the outside folks at around four dozen with hundreds inside).  The forty-minute set explained why Minus the Bear has such an enthusiastic and growing fan base:  this is tight, addictive music, and the guys are a portrait of a band in harmony with each other and their music.

Kicking off with "Knights," from the new album, the band dived right into the simultaneously polished and emotional sound that makes Planet of Ice such a compelling listen.  Jake Snider's voice manages to be smooth and tinged with desperation at the same time, giving his vocals a subtle depth. Lines like "it's usually so typical, a piece of you for a piece of me" sound calm and constrained, but you can hear the agony right under the surface.  Minus the Bear uses dramatic restraint in more than just the vocals:  "Burying Luck," their second song, incorporated small musical pauses that ramped up the tension.  Erin Tate, on the drums, also used the metal stand of his cymbals to tap out a tinkling metallic accompaniment to the quieter moments of the song.  Despite those delicate touches, "Burying Luck" ends up rocking hard, hinting at heavier rock genres.  The fans nearly jumped the aisles at the first notes of "The Fix," from Menos el Oso ("Pachuca Sunrise" provoked the same reaction).  Some of the people in the front rows weren't just singing along to the words, they were singing along to the individual notes before the vocals came in.   I noticed that they knew the words to all of the new songs too--an impressive display of their devotion considering that Planet of Ice was officially released only the day before!

Tate pulled out a tiny xylophone to open the next song, "Ice Monster."  Cory Murchy swapped his bass for a tambourine briefly, and Alex Rose, the band's newest member on keyboards, provided vocals that perfectly matched and complimented Snider's.  It's a sad truth that in some bands, there is a member (or more, ouch) who is less involved or less necessary to the whole.  Minus the Bear fits together like puzzle pieces, each member perfectly attuned to every other, and all of them with multiple talents.  David Knudson (whose hair looked great despite having his one-ounce-over gel confiscated by the TSA that morning) worked his guitar to its limits and then dropped to the floor for sonic space fun-and-games on "White Mystery" and their final song, "Lotus."  Also the last track on Planet of Ice, "Lotus" is an extended piece about the current state of the world--hmm, who could "the man in the blue suit" who has "got God" and "got guns" be?--that transformed midway into an instrumental trip into Pink-Floydian organs and space-rock, and closed out with a syncopated intensity that almost approached metal.

To top it off, they are genuinely nice guys.  The line for album-signing and pictures wound around the store and up the stairs, but the band was happy and friendly to the very last fan (and beyond--even as they were packing up their equipment and browsing the aisles, they would stop and pose on request for camera-phone snaps).  A full store, a fantastic new album, an appreciation for their fans:  these guys are headed for the big time.  It was wonderful to catch them--for free!--on their way up.