Matt Hewson
Boy & Bear have announced a second show at the Torquay Hotel as part of their national tour after the tickets sold out for the first scheduled performance.
With tickets unavailable for the Torquay gig on Saturday 16 September the band have added a Sunday session date on 17 September .
The indie rockers are promoting their new, self-titled album and also celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the release of their platinum album Harlequin Dream with a release of previously unheard songs as a three-track EP titled Lost Dreams, which comes out 15 September .
For Boy & Bear bassist Dave Symes, it also marks a decade since he joined the band, replacing original bass player Jake Tarasenko as the band began to conceive of Harlequin Dream.
“They were at a time, just before making this Harlequin record, where they had some shows leading into the Australian summer festival season that year, and Jake had decided for his own personal reasons to move on from the band,” Symes said.
“Their tour manager, the great Greg Weaver, was somebody I’d worked with previously and he suggested to the boys that maybe I could help out to get through the festival shows before they worked out what they were going to do.
“We just hit it off, we got on really well musically and personally and the shows went really great.
“After one of the shows Killian (Gavin) and Tim (Hart) decided to lock me in the van and said I wasn’t getting out unless I joined the band. We started recording Harlequin Dream a month later.”
Symes said the release of the three tracks recorded as part of the Harlequin Dream project but never heard by the public gave him a great perspective on the journey of the band so far.
“Listening to that music definitely takes me back to that time,” he said.
“You develop and mature and get more experienced every year you work at your craft, so you can hear the growth. It definitely takes me back and helps me reflect on the last 10 years.”
