LIVE REVIEW: Minus the Bear & Beach Slang @ Variety Playhouse 3/21

On Tuesday, March 21st, Variety Playhouse hosted a hell of a show for any indie rock lover, with longstanding indie rock purveyors Minus the Bear headlining, flanked by one of the hottest buzzed about relative newcomers in Beach Slang.

Beach Slang @ Variety Playhouse Atlanta 3-21-17

Beach Slang are an American punk rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in May of 2013.

I consider Beach Slang to be one of those lightning in a bottle type bands. The sound, the energy. Everything fits like a well worn leather jacket. The frenetic frontman, Alex James, demands to be seen and heard.

If you’re a fan of The Replacements or Jawbreaker or any other band that fits that sound, you probably already know and love this band. If you fall into that category and haven’t heard this band, you need to open your streaming service of choice and get with the program.

Reading the room, you could tell that a lot of the seated attendees were probably there waiting for Minus the Bear. Older crowd. More subdued. But the standing room towards the front of the stage knew what was coming. They were ready. A notably younger group of folks, were grinning from ear to ear, anticipating a raucous punk show with one of my favorite new frontman.

They opened the show with “Noisy Heaven” off their first LP The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us. Throughout the set they managed to play songs from across all of their catalog. They also managed to squeeze in a cover of The Pixies “Where is my Mind”, as well as a semi comedic cover of Santana’s “Smooth”.

They closed out their set thanking everyone for coming out early and proclaiming Atlanta as their new favorite city to play. Then Beach Slang went straight into “Atom Bomb”. And just like that, the set was over.

Minus the Bear @ Variety Playhouse Atlanta 3-21-17

Minus the Bear is an American indie rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2001, comprising of current and former members of Botch, Kill Sadie and Sharks Keep Moving. They are currently touring in support of their new album Voids, which is out now on Suicide Squeeze Records.

After a brief cool down period from Beach Slang, the lights went dim and then turned to a deep bluish hue. The light flooded the stage complete with artificial smoke as the band took their positions on stage. They started off their set with a track off their new album called “Give & Take”. It fit the lighting perfectly, even if my camera was not happy with the saturation. They blazed through their set with atmospheric ambience between songs from their entire catalog, eventually culminating with their classic “Pachuca Sunrise”.

As I looked back at the crowd it had grown considerably since I had arrived at the venue. Barely any seating left and the balcony was pretty packed as well. Everyone was into it in their own way. Whether it was singing along and hanging on Jake Snider’s every word, or just dancing to the pulsating bass of Cory Murchy.

All in all, great gig. Great band. /- Peter Sigmund

Check out photos of Minus the Bear and Beach Slang at Variety Playhouse by Peter Sigmund: