Sydney five-piece Boy & Bear are Australian rock royalty.
Formed in 2009, their brand of banjo-infused campfire angst has won them a devoted legion of fans (certainly if this audience is anything to go by), even if the band’s ubiquity on triple j and at the ARIAs never quite translated into runaway commercial success.
Now, following a four-year hiatus, they’re back. Tonight (at The Tivoli Theatre, 15 August) is the opener of a world tour in support of new album ‘Suck On Light’, that sees the boys (and presumably the bear) on the road until London 2020.
Over a taut hour-long set, they play a mix of old and new material, including their latest single ‘Hold Your Nerve’ that sounds like The Verve if the drugs were working.
It is music to soundtrack a sunny festival afternoon. Music to euphorically wave or dreamily sway along with. Songs peter out and are punctuated by a polite “thank you” rather than actually end. They all sound the same, but that’s no insult. If it ain’t broke.
It’s clear Boy & Bear have had a break from playing. Lead singer David Hosking’s voice is box-fresh. A couple of false starts are blamed in good humour on drummer Tim Hart, as they struggle to re-establish the groove of a band who can do this in their sleep.
Then there’s ‘Fall At Your Feet’.
Occasionally, a cover version comes along so brilliant, so definitive, so all-encapsulating that it eclipses the original. Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’. Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’. Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’.
So it is with their version of Crowded House’s ‘Fall At Your Feet’. Recorded for a 2010 Finn Brothers covers album, it remains Boy & Bear’s second most streamed track on Spotify.
A worthy choice then, with which to break their self-imposed ten-year ban on encores. The audience agrees as the riff, instantly recognised, is drowned out in a roar of approval.
Boy & Bear are back.
