Hunter and the Bear Grrrrrrr

Livestock Festival Continued

One look at Hunter and the Bear and I wanted to love them - it's a hair thing.  But this is a band greater than the sum of their swishy hair. I feel honour bound to mention at this point that for Janie it was the bushy beard that grabbed her attention.  But hey-ho needless to say, we were focused.

Hunter and the Bear, have that magical quality of being incredibly self assured without arrogance.  When the talent's turned up this high - you don't need to do the whole 'too cool for school' thing.  They were likeable, they drew us in. 

 I guess you would call what we heard contemporary folk/rock ish and if I were a gambling woman (see below) I would be willing to bet on who they've been compared to in recent years but that would be to do HATB an injustice - they're no carbon copy, they bring something extra to a non-genre genre, a unique quality. 

Do yourself a favour. CLICK HERE!

The musicainship is evident in every number, with a glorious clarity of vocals, the songs crafted to showcase every element of their combined talent.  

Set List

Burn It Up

Forest on The Hill

Tallies

On The Run

Hanging By A Thread

Shadow Man

The River (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Pick Me Up

Blood Red Skies

Battle Scars

Like A Runaway

They didn't need a cover but The River was truly good.  Janie and I, when we're not at a gig, can often be found at the poker table and that is a featured song on the much coveted Dance Happy Poker Playlist.  It was a great choice - and they did it justice.

However,  my very favourite moment was when they unplugged and came down from the stage, a very bold move for a band at a festival, not assured of a secure loyal fan base.  It relies upon a disparate festival crowd being both courteous and curious enough to shut up for 5 minutes, but a group gathered around the band effectively blocking enough background noise to make the number viable, and this act of itself brought others to see what was going on.  

This was possibly my favourite moment of the entire Livestock festival.  The song was written in that bleak time of helplessness when a loved one is seriously ill and you feel utterly inadequate in every way.  As someone who is somewhat raw from my own sister's rediagnosis of cancer it reduced me to a puddle of mascara and snot.  The story of the last leaf is one that I heard as a child and has never left me, and their assurance to their friend 'I won't let the leaves outside your window hit the ground' was everything that I'd wanted to say but couldn't find the words.  

If this wasn't enough - they are thoroughly likeable off stage too, anyone who writes NAAA NA NA - NA NA NA NAAAAA (think about it) when signing my EP cover, is OK with me.

Hunter and The Bear are a class act.
Find them on Twitter  @HunterTheBear or  
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and grab yourself a bear hug from Will, Jimmy, Gareth and Chris.
You heard it here first!