Minus The Bear celebrated the 20th anniversary of breakthrough LP ‘Menos El Oso’ at The Belasco
Seven years after calling it quits, genre-bending titans Minus The Bear returned to the stage to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough LP, Menos El Oso. A lot has changed in those spans of time, but Minus The Bear have emerged stronger than ever, delivering a tour-de-force performance that prints in bold type an additional chapter to their heady legendium and already mythic status as one of indie rock’s most innovative and powerful acts.
Philly phenoms Speedy Ortiz kicked off the evening with a raucous set of bubblegrunge rippers jam packed with big, crunchy riffs, punchy rhythms, and plenty of scrappy underdog attitude. Slightly discordant compositions pitched with unpredictable exuberance enabling impressive feats of indie guitar heroics and punky blasts of millennial angst delivered with a flashing wit and a sarcastic edge. Barreling towards their conclusion, Speedy Ortiz wrapped their set with a cataclysmic finale that exploded with glittering chaos and magnificent melody. A fine showcase for the band’s formidable prowess and good-natured vivacity.
Stream Speedy Ortiz on Spotify and follow the band on Instagram.
Menos El Oso is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential albums of the early millennium, a technical powerhouse that exists at the unlikely convergence of math rock, post-hardcore, emo, pop, and prog rock. It’s a timeless album, but also a highly specific document of a particular cultural moment, a collection of songs that inspired a generation to seek meaning beyond the borders of adolescence and to savor every flavor life has to offer, from the carnal to the chemical to the intellectual. But as people grow and change, an album remains forever frozen in amber, preserved across the decades as a soundtrack to blurry moments that defined the journey towards adulthood.
20 years removed from those restless days Menos El Oso still hits as hard as ever, now tinted with an unmistakable air of wistful saudade. The album’s widescreen renditions of cinematic romance and globetrotting double vision quests are a siren song summoning forth memories semi-obscured by the passing of time but crystalized forever within the subconscious. It only take a few notes to transport oneself once more to midnight on a beach in the Mediterranean, and even if you weren’t there you felt like you were, every fiber of your being tugged across the sea by the magnetic pull of youthful wanderlust.
Time has done little to blunt Minus The Bear’s technical precision and poetic beauty. In fact, age and sobriety have arguably amplified the band’s collective abilities, and revisiting the hedonistic tales of Menos El Oso through the lens of middle age brings a new level of clarity that enhances the impact of each vividly composed narrative vignette. 2018’s Farewell tour had a heaviness to it, the celebration overshadowed by a frayed sense of exhaustion that’s a natural result of so many years spent on the road and living at full throttle. Once again on stage, Minus The Bear was firing on all cylinders throughout the entirety of Menos El Oso, fully refreshed and irrefutably back in spectacular fashion to deliver a performance that absolutely shattered expectations.
Expanding beyond the scope of Menos El Oso, Minus The Bear amplified the setlist with a selection of tracks that spanned the first half of their career and spilled over into a colossal encore before the lights finally came up. If 2018 was Farewell, the 20th anniversary of Menos El Oso was indeed a welcome return. Here’s to another 20.
Menos El Oso 20th Anniversary Edition is available now via Suicide Squeeze. Stream the album on Spotify and follow Minus The Bear on Instagram.
Upcoming Shows
OCT 14 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre - tickets
OCT 16 - Austin, TX - Emo’s Austin
OCT 17 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
OCT 18 - Austin, TX - Emo’s Austin
OCT 19 - New Orleans, LA - Civic Theatre - tickets
OCT 21 - Orlando, FL - The Beacham
OCT 22 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade (Heaven)
OCT 24 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore Philadelphia
OCY 25 - Boston, MA - Citizens House of Blues
NOV 4 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club - tickets
NOV 5 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
NOV 7 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel
NOV 8 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
NOV 9 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
NOV 11 - Mckees Rocks, PA - Roxian Theatre - tickets
NOV 12 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues Restaurant & Bar - tickets
NOV 14 - Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre
NOV 15 - Chicago, IL - Metro Chicago
NOV 16 - Chicago, IL - Metro Chicago
NOV 18 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue - tickets
NOV 19 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada - tickets
NOV 21 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre - tickets
NOV 22 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre - tickets
NOV 23 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot - tickets
NOV 26 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox - tickets
NOV 28 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox
NOV 29 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox