Aug 08, 2008  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

While Bear Invasion weekend will bring its influx of big-hearted, hirsute men to Washington, another kind of ursine visitor will visit the District on Monday. The Brooklyn-based quartet Grizzly Bear will take a break from its tour with Radiohead to grace the stage at the Historic 6th and I Synagogue in Chinatown.

Though their last local show was at the Black Cat, the band’s gay frontman Ed Droste says that the synagogue will be a nice change of pace from their regular performance spaces.

“We’re huge fans of alternative spaces,” Droste says. “It’s a nice juxtaposition to the amphitheatres we’ll be playing with Radiohead, which we normally never have the opportunity to play. We try to mix it up between rock clubs and scenic churches. We’ve never played a synagogue before so we’re psyched.”

Though the band’s next album is not due out until April, the opportunity to tour with Radiohead was one they couldn’t pass up. Though the latter’s reputation allows them to sell out palatial venues months in advance, Grizzly Bear’s sound is more suited to the intimate, seated setting of 6th and I. Their expansively psychedelic mix of guitar, multi-tracked vocals and unusual song structures have gotten them tagged with labels like “new folk,” but 2007’s EP “Friend” and the upcoming new album are evolving the sound of the band’s first two releases.

“I considered us super folk-y for the acoustic guitar and the harmonies that came about because our first album was so lo-fi, but that tag of ‘freak folk’ has disappeared in the last couple years. Thank God. Every member of the band has become a really important creative force. We’ve crafted our sound, it’s evolving. The new album will be a hybrid of ‘Friend’ and [breakthrough album] ‘Yellow House.’ It will have a bombastic live feel, but still be layered and lush.” 

“Friend” was also notable for its inclusion of other artists’ renditions of Grizzly Bear’s catalogue. Their signature song, “Knife,” was covered by Brazilian girl group CSS and by Atlas Sound, a side project of queer musician Bradford Cox. Droste is also friends with Owen Pallett, the gay Canadian musician who records as Final Fantasy. Droste has had some luck in finding a community of queer rockers but also finds that their bonds as musicians transcend sexuality.

“There aren’t a lot of other gay indie rockers, we have this common thing. We won’t walk up to each other and say, ‘You’re gay too,’ but it’s always interesting to meet the other people in the queer scene. Everyone’s music is different, it doesn’t feel like there’s some collective unconsciousness of queer rock. We’re randomly gay people in different bands or projects who find each other a little easier because we’re gay.”

Despite being on the road for close to six months a year, Droste is a model for gay monogamy. The 29-year-old has been dating an interior designer named Chad for four years, with whom he shares a dog. Droste says the time apart can be challenging but also affords a good chance to “do [his] own thing” for several weeks at a time. Droste or Chad might occasionally kiss someone else while separated, which Droste calls a “We’re-all-human-kind of thing,” but he generally avoids the fruits of the road.

“If I wanted to be a slut on the road I could be, but [I’m not.] I’m not the most attractive person in the world. It’s not like people have pinups for me, but there are some crushes. It wouldn’t exist if I wasn’t in a band.”