Boy & Bear @ Forum Theatre, 16/05/2012

It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I was seeing some little-known Sydney folk quintet opening for Mumford & Sons at the Palace Theatre in 2010, but here we are two years later and Boy & Bear are pretty much, in Australia at least, on a level playing field with that band. Their debut EP With Emperor Antarctica was a huge success, no doubt due to the unbelievably catchy pair of tunes Mexican Mavis and Rabbit Song, and the songs that followed it, and the Moonfire album in 2011, have earned Boy & Bear plenty of love from the musical community in this country. After a successful run of shows in 2011, both prior to and following the Moonfire release, and a well-received slot at this year's Big Day Out, the Sydney gents evidently thought, "Another tour? Why not!", and are currently trekking across the country on their Remembering the Mexican tour, in homage to that song that helped to make them so damn popular. And damn popular they are; tonight was the first of three sold-out shows at the Forum. So anyway, what a gig! Shows at the Forum are always awesome, and this was no exception. I would have liked to see another song or two from With Emperor Antarctica make it in, but all in all it was a solid setlist; I had no idea prior to the gig they were putting new songs in the set too, so that was awesome to hear. My only other (very minor) complaint was that I'm not sure if such a large venue is suited to this kind of music; with a lot of very slow and chilled out songs, it seemed a bit weird to see so many people standing around doing absolutely nothing. They had the same problem at Big Day Out too. But they got the crowd moving with the "big hits" and on the whole, it was just a great show from a great band. Can't wait for album number two!

SETLIST:
Rabbit Song
Lordy May
Milk & Sticks
My Only One
Three Headed Woman
Fall at Your Feet (Crowded House cover; with additional snippet of Neil Young - Heart of Gold)
Part Time Believer
(Unknown; new song)
Beach
Feeding Line
Big Man
Mexican Mavis
Golden Jubilee

DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE