Grizzly Bear- Zoo Twilights

As part of their Australian tour in support of Painted Ruins Grizzly Bear made a stop in Melbourne tonight to play Zoo Twilights at the Melbourne Zoo. This was my second time seeing the band in the last few months as I was fortunate enough to catch them in San Francisco in December when I was home.

The opening act was Swedish musician Jens Lekman, who played a really entertaining set of his poppy songs that had everyone bopping along. He told great stories to explain the origins of the songs, including "An Argument With Myself" which was written about Melbourne when he used to live here.

The whole front section of the crowd was standing by the time Grizzly Bear took to the stage. They opened with one of my favorite tracks off of Painted Ruins, "Aquarian." Other highlights from the album included "Cut-Out," "Four Cypresses" and "Mourning Sound." The band sounded great and seemed to be enjoying themselves throughout the evening. Ed commented that this was their biggest crowd yet in Melbourne. I was happy to hear many of my favorite tracks from their back catalogue such as "Yet Again," "Sleeping Ute," "Two Weeks," "On A Neck, On A Spit" and "While We Wait For The Others," which closed out the main set. During the encore Chris Taylor made the funny comment they thought playing at a zoo would be the low point in their career but that the setting was actually was quite nice. To finish the night they played a fantastic version of "Sun In Your Eyes." It was another amazing live show from the band and just so impressive to watch them play and enjoying themselves on stage.

Here's the video for "Neighbors"