We love a good party here at One on One HQ.
After all, why wouldn’t we? There’s a lot of things to love about a party.
There’s the music, of course: the music that starts off all cool and credible, but erupts into an indisputably awesome, singalong-inspiring cheese-fest by the end of the night. There’s the drinks, too; oh, and the dancing. Let’s not forget the cake, as well. There’s always a cake.
Our favourite thing about parties, though, is that you’ll generally find yourself being surrounded by people who are out to have a good time. They’ll do it in their own ways, but they’ll all be looking for fun. Nobody goes to a party to stand in the corner and look grumpy, do they? You’ll have friends; heck, you might even have family there. At a good party, you can’t help but to have a good time.
You may be wondering, dear reader, why we’re banging on about parties in an article that’s supposed to be a review of an Eliza & The Bear show. The answer to that question is, in all honesty, fairly simple: when we went to see Eliza & The Bear at Bristol’s Thekla, there was good music; the band occasionally broke rank and led the crowd into what can only be described as indisputably awesome, singalong-inspiring cheese-fest; and their frontman, James Kellegher, spent a decent chunk of their stage time handing cake out to the crowd.
Let’s begin at the beginning
No, we’re not quite sure how that all happened either. In all honesty, things all seemed so normal when we arrived at the show. We propped ourselves up at the bar and tapped our foot along to the (seriously impressive) support act, SAINT PHNX, before making our way into the crowd in time to enjoy the main event.
That’s when things started getting weird. The details are a little hazy, but we can vividly remember the band leading the crowd in a raucous rendition of Happy Birthday – directed at a slightly sheepish-looking Kellegher – before surprising the birthday boy by planting a paper plate full of shaving foam in his face. We can recall, too, at least three impromptu jam sessions being launched into at random moments by the boys in the band, culminating in a slightly shambolic power-through of AC/DC‘s Back In Black.
Oh, and we can definitely remember the look on our friends’ faces when the band handed the crowd an actual, real-life chocolate caterpillar cake to pass around. That was a particular highlight.
Despite the cake, none of those things was the highlight of the night
What sticks out most for us the most, though, is this: throughout the haze of cake, shaving foam, and spontaneous jam sessions, Eliza & The Bear spent that chilly Bristolian evening proving to us exactly why they’re one of the UK indie scene’s most exhilarating live bands. Not only are they ridiculously good live, but it’s genuinely impossible to go to one of their shows and not have fun.
Their songs are infectious enough to ensure that you’ll be humming at least three of them on your way to work the next morning, and their fans are devoted enough to ensure that if you’re not screaming every word back into the band’s faces at one of their shows, you’re firmly in the minority.
We can’t possibly imagine anyone regretting going to an Eliza & The Bear gig; so, why not go and see them for yourselves the next time they roll into your town? You’ll sing, you’ll dance, and you’ll have a good time; and, at the end of it all, you might even have some cake.
What more could you want from a rock and roll show?