Minus the Bear rocks hometown show at tour end

As far as hometown shows go — or any show, for that matter — Minus the Bear’s triumphant return to Seattle and The Showbox couldn’t have been any better.

Ending the two-month North American tour in the Emerald City was fitting. Although New York trio The Big Sleep and Alaskan trio Portugal. The Man were great opening acts, the crowd was clearly there to see the hometown heroes.

Make no mistake: these guys rock hard. The concerts they’ve been selling out from coast to coast since early March reinforce that fact.

The band played through their entire hour and 20-minute slot plus a four-song encore, breaking between sets just long enough to switch equipment and take a breath. Factoring in how hard they were going at it, the performance deserves to be respected at the very least.

Though some bands sound better with the benefit of studio equipment and post-processing, Minus the Bear — whose name comes from an inside joke referring to the ‘80s TV show B.J. and the Bear — is not one of them. The energy of the stage performance translated into musical energy at the same time and let the audience feel what a great concert should feel like.

The 1,100-person capacity of the Showbox at the Market was completely filled. It was clearly a mutual symbiotic relationship; the band fed off of their fans, the fans fed off of the band and the show escalated.

Drummer Erin Tate definitely deserves a shout-out for his impressive playing. Minus the Bear’s music is incredibly rhythmic, and watching Tate flail wildly with intense precision showed how the sound is made possible. It’s hard to imagine working as hard as he was for one set, much less an hour and a half.

There was no out-with-the-old mentality either. They played plenty of songs from their latest album release Planet of Ice. Many crowd favorites from every past LP and EP were eagerly eaten up by the audience, including the first song Minus the Bear ever wrote, “Lemurs, Man, Lemurs.”

It was a successful, fun, short reunion between the band and the city. The thumbs up that bassist Cory Murchy kept giving the crowd said it all — Minus the Bear was happy to be home.