Minus the Bear – King Tut's, Glasgow 27/04/13

The problem with not knowing a lot about a band other than their name and what it conjures up – plus a few minor details about what they might sound like – means you’re often living with a self-created musical myth instead of what they actually do sound like. That’s the position I found myself in before finally experiencing the music of Minus the Bear at Glasgow’s King Tut’s on Saturday night. Here’s what I knew/assumed:

1. The name: kind of a rubbish band in-joke, yet it works in a kind of endearing way. That assumption still stands true
2. There’d be a fair amount of “guitar taps” throughout, a technique that looks and sounds irritating in equal measure. I was glad to be proven wrong on that score
3. There’d be a good quota of difficult to follow time signatures and tempo changes, and few choruses. Correct, but that would never had bothered me anyway

The Seattle band can probably be put into the “veterans” bracket of the alt.rock scene given it’s been 12 years since front man and guitarist Jake Snider formed the band, and in that time released five full-length records. They’ve always passed me by, give or take a few songs, so this was an opportunity to finally get to know Minus the Bear as they toured behind their latest album Infinity Overhead.

The songs I heard that were taken from that record appeared to be the sound of a more direct Minus the Bear: driving guitar rhythms backed with subtle electronics (think a rockier Bear in Heaven…..must be a bear thing) and less skipping around the time signatures. So songs like opener ‘Steel and Blood’, ‘Diamond Lightning’ and ‘Toska’ were pleasingly instant hits (the latter especially with its addictive and colourful cyclical riffs), if a little obvious at times – although there’s nothing wrong with obvious if it’s executed extremely well.

The most enjoyable moments for me – and those that were most well-received by a receptive crowd who knew the back catalogue better than I – came when the band played tracks from older albums: ‘The Fix’, from 2005’s Menos el Oso, was a wonderfully scratchy punk-funk bomb, while another older track ‘Knights’ pounded along with math rock intensity and plenty of fun changes in tempo and ‘Spritz!!! Spritz!!!’ from debut album Highly Refined Pirates was probably the best moment of the night; an example of how well the band seem to combine those tricksy math rock tempo changes with a more direct guitar style, that track, plus show closer and all-round anthem ‘Pachuca Sunrise’ would be enough to convince anyone to seek out the band’s back catalogue.

As a first experience of Minus the Bear I have to admit that it’s not made me a complete convert to what they do; I think when they nail that combination of math and alt. it’s very good indeed, but I wonder if when I finally do listen to those records there’ll be a great number of dull moments in-between the attention-grabbers? However, this was damn good fun and if it’s made me want to investigate further, then it’s a definite case of job done.