“How do we sound out front?” ask Bearsuit, with good reason. “Charming” comes back the riposte, though with the less helpful addendum “but shambolic”. Bearsuit are after all known for their offbeat and off-kilter pop. 
Though having arrived 5 minutes previously the lack of a soundcheck may hamper their smooth running machine. They’re also, it turns out, in a bit of a hurry – the taxi’s outside with the meter running, to take the Norwich 6-piece to Edinburgh for a headline show. Bizarrely it turns out that they’ve soundchecked in Edinburgh before coming here and are going back to the capital in 30 minutes. A suggestion that they play their songs twice as fast is offered, but the band decline. Well, they play at breakneck pace already as we all know. Sadly they are concentrating on new material so no ‘hits’ – fact Lisa admitting to having promised a fan an oldie but with no intention of doing so.
Instead, it’s pretty all-new material in their criminally short set, but they squeeze in their new single, an unlikely paean to the world of the women’s fight game which implores us not to “underestimate the power from the punch of a Foxy Boxer” and which seems to somehow nod to bis, Kenickie and Urusei. Closing tune (yes, already) ‘More Soul Than Wigan Casino’ is, however, pure Bearsuit, with excitable hollering, gritty guitars, and a plethora of instruments making for a sound perhaps closest to Belle and Sebastian on some pretty serious anti-depressants. And at 3 times the speed to boot. Sounding good.more photos from Bearsuit on Flickr – the good ones taken by Andrew McKenna
