Line-up

Headliner
Boy & Bear Last time in Christchurch: 1 year ago

Venue

James Hay Theatre

Town Hall, 9810, Christchurch, New Zealand

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Additional details

Doors open: 19:30

Concert in your area for Indie & Alt and Folk & Blues.

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Boy & Bear biography

Boy & Bear (formed in 2009) is an Australian indie rock and folk outfit, hailing from Sydney, New South Wales, in Australia.

In it’s original conception Boy & Bear started as a solo project for singer and songwriter Dave Hosking. In February 2009 Hosking sent a track of his “The Storm” to Australian radio station Triple J who played the song regularly and it became a staple of the station. Shortly after Hosking invited singer, songwriter and guitarist Killian Gavin, drummer Tim Hart, Tim’s multi-instrumentalist brother Jon Hart, and bassist Jake Tarasenko to join the band.

In October 2009 Boy & Bear independently released the single “Mexican Mavis”, which after being sent to Triple J again received regularly airplay along with on Nova FM. The band soon garnered a good deal of attention for their melodic and heartfelt style of folk-rock, seemingly the Australian answer to Mumford and Sons and Fleet Foxes. Following the release of “Mexican Mavis” Boy & Bear signed a deal with Island Records and toured alongside Angus and Julia Stone and Hungry Kids of Hungary.

The group subsequently released their debut EP “With Emperor Antarctica” in early 2010 followed up by a UK tour in support of Laura Marling, Alessi’s Ark and Mumford and Sons. In August 2011 Boy & Bear released their debut full-length album “Moonfire” to across the board positive reviews with the album reaching No. 2 in the Australian Albums chart. The album features the singles “Feeding Line”, “Milk & Sticks”, “Part Time Believer” and “Big Man” and has since been certified as double platinum. At the 2012 ARIA awards the band took home five trophies including for Breakthrough Artist, Album of the Year and Best Group.

In 2013 Boy & Bear released their second full-length album “Harlequin Dream” led by the homage to Richard Clapton single “Southern Sun”. The album peaked at No. 1 in the Australian Albums chart, was produced by Wayne Connolly and has since been certified gold.

Live reviews

I remember being genuinely struck by Boy & Bear when they opened for Laura Marling a few years back, for numerous reasons; that, in itself, was surprising to me, given that their gentle brand of folk-rock was hardly the most original thing I’d heard in a while. There was such a confidence to their performance, though, that you couldn’t help but be impressed; after all, this was their first time in the UK, playing to an intimidatingly large room (Salford’s Lowry Theatre) and just about as far as they could possibly get from their hometown of Sydney. They fired through material from their debut record, Moonfire, with a genuine tightness to the performance, despite the fact that the album, at that point, was over a year away from reaching record stores; they’d not even been signed for long at that point. Perhaps the bravest decision they made, though, was to throw in a Bon Iver cover; so distinctive is Justin Vernon’s delivery that usually, artists covering his songs tend to try to take them in an entirely different direction. Not Boy & Bear, though; they stuck to the script and delivered a version of ‘Flume’ that - whisper it - might even have been more emotionally arresting than the original. They’ve made it to the UK a few times since, with their most recent dates, earlier this year, in support of sophomore LP Harlequin Dream; their schedule is usually a heavy one, so don’t be surprised to see them back before long.

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