I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 11, 2017] The Spirit of the Beehive

I had never heard of The Spirit of the Beehive before this show.  They are a Philadelphia band with two albums and one EP on bandcamp.

I listened to them briefly before the show–their sound was noisy with a shoegaze element.  I didn’t have much time to explore them before I left for the show, so I was totally unprepared for the wild set the band played.

They were fun to watch.  And their music was wonderfully complex.

According to the latest album, Pleasure Suck, the band is composed of the hex, buzz, rat, ricky, and pail.  Some research provides me with names, although I’m not sure who to match with which nickname: guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz, drummer Pat Conaboy, guitarist/keyboardist Justin Fox, guitarist Tim Jordan and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede.

There were only four members on stage (based on the above, I’d guess that Jordan was not there as everyone else’s instruments seem to be accounted for).

I’ve since enjoyed Pleasure Suck, but I’m not exactly sure what songs they played for the show.

The first song (“Pleasure Suck II”) was very cool in that it opened with Ravede singing a verse or two which then switched to Schwartz singing lead (actually this might have been two different songs).  I couldn’t tell if their songs were long with many parts or just short blasts (songs on the record range from 2 to 4 minutes).

Their songs morphed easily between shoegaze and noise.  What was really interesting is that they would occasionally lock into a really catchy riff/chant, but by the time I got the camera ready to record the section, it would end and then never get repeated.

Sometimes the songs retained the shoegaze feel even while the lead guitars were noisy and chaotic.  And Schwartz was sure interesting to watch as he bashed his guitar around making squealing sounds.  Drummer Conaboy bashed the hell out of the kit which was fun to watch as well.  This clip captures both.

And yet every time it seemed like they were just going to devolve into noise, they played a great catchy section like this–with catchy verses and great harmonies.  I still haven’t figured out all the song names yet.

Of course, for every pretty song there was some counterbalance of noise.  And the way that the band ended the set was just such a treat to watch–Schwartz wailing on his guitar and then just letting it crash to the ground.

I would absolutely see them again, and I’d really like to see them headlining, to see what they do for the audience who is there just for them

Once again I have to wonder why bands don’t put their own sets up on setlist.fm, it’s all about promotion, right?