by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
It had been some time since I made the Murray Hill Theatre scene. I was there to cover a promising band that broke up a while back but decided to reunite for one night to play a final concert. The pregnant question is: Was this a ploy to test the waters for a reunion campaign or the band’s swan song? During an interview with our Managing Editor, Jon Bosworth, Jared Chase Bowser was cagey about making a commitment to a future Bernard 2.0 when asked by Jon, “Is the band back for good?”
“That’s hard to say. None of us can predict the future, but for now it is going to be one night only at the Murray Hill,” Jared said. One can read between the lines of Jared’s ambiguous answer. My question is: Why bother to play a final concert if the band wasn’t entertaining the idea of reuniting? Only the band members can answer that.
Bernard is a band that relies heavily on prerecorded tracks using a laptop to program the show, which is acceptable in today’s world. The downside of this electronic manipulation is the band is a slave to the technology and if something goes wrong, it’s difficult to cover the malfunction. Of course, in a hastily organized reunion concert, Murphy’s Law takes precedence. Three quarters the way through its first set, a glitch in the circuitry happened, and the band took a break to fix the problem.
Guitarist and frontman, Jonathan Berlin, opened the show with a catchy piano motif, then the band kicked in with Jonathan bowing his guitar to launch one of the band’s premier pieces with strange images projected on the back-screen. Loops and sequences wove in and out of the songs, which are haunting cinematic suites. Many songs started with piano intros then evolved into a complex crescendo of music, finally returning to the piano motif. It’s an exciting audio-visual presentation. I was mesmerized by the band’s rock symphonies and visual images.
Clearly, this trio of talented and experienced musicians have some progressive ideas of combining cinema and music in an integrated multimedia show. If they really want to pursue this creative idea, then they will have to come to terms with their conflicts. However, only the band members can decide whether or not their music is important enough to pursue Bernard 2.0 by resolving their differences. If Bernard 2.0 blossoms, then the band will have to reestablish its MySpace website and go on a promotional campaign and tour.
Frankly, I was excited by Bernard’s music and see a bright future for this trio if the band decides to go for it. But they need to make sure that their show is programmed correctly by doing live dress rehearsals with invited audience members to test their equipment and how well they know the material. Fusing preprogrammed music with live performance is tricky to pull off with finesse. That laptop is another player on-stage who is not very bright and not able to adjust to changing situations.
One of my favorite local bands that could go on to national prominence, Shangrala, opened the Oct. 12th Murray Hill Friday night rock show. Last April 4, 2007, I covered Shangrala at the band’s 9th & Main showcase. My glowing review is printed in the band’s MySpace website. Interestingly, Jared Chase Bowser of Bernard sometimes plays with Shangrala.
My advice to the members of Bernard–don’t play mind games with your fans, who felt disillusioned when the band suddenly broke up. Either go for broke as Bernard 2.0 and make a big splash, or make it clear once and for all that the band is defunct forever. Amen!
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
