Detroit, MI · post-hardcore · indie rock

Bear Vs. Shark

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Detroit post-hardcore that lurches between whisper and full collapse. Long-dormant and much-mythologized, so a Fest set is a genuine event.

Bear Vs. Shark formed in Highland, Michigan in 2001, while its members were still in college and playing in separate projects. Some of them had known each other since preschool. The band has named classic rock and punk, along with the Clash, Fugazi and Motown, as reference points for its sound.

Onstage the band built a reputation around Marc Paffi's shouted, half-spoken vocals and a habit of moving frantically around the stage, while the rest of the group regularly swapped instruments mid-set. The arrangements matched that restlessness, veering between quiet passages and full collapse rather than settling into verse-chorus shape.

A demo tape brought a representative from Equal Vision Records out to sign the band almost immediately. Bear Vs. Shark went on to tour the United States extensively, headlining shows and opening for acts including Coheed and Cambria, while releasing an EP and the two albums, "Right Now, You're in the Best of Hands..." and "Terrorhawk", on the label.

The band split in 2005, but the two albums built a cult following in the years afterward, keeping its reputation ahead of its catalogue. In 2016 it regrouped for a reunion show in Flint, Michigan, benefiting Flintkids.org, followed by a short run of further dates, around which Equal Vision reissued both albums together on vinyl.

Members have kept busy elsewhere: Mike Muldoon and John Gaviglio formed Cannons in Brooklyn, Paffi, Muldoon and original drummer Brandon Moss played together in Champions of History, Moss also plays in Wildcatting, and Gaviglio has performed with Matthew Dear's Big Hands.

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post-hardcoreindie rock