The Bunny the Bear at the Redstone Room -- September 29.
Sunday, September 29, 7 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
With their most recent recording Afterglow lauded by SputnikMusic as "the strongest album in their career," the experimental-rock and synth-pop musicians of The Bunny the Bear headline a September 29 concert event at Davenport's Redstone Room, Ghost Killer Entertainment adding that Afterglow is "versatile enough to accommodate even the most casual of listeners while still retaining songwriting and orchestration prowess that would appeal to a hardcore music nerd."
Hailing from Buffalo, New York, and known for its eclectic style influenced by genres including metalcore, alternative rock, and electronica., The Bunny the Bear was formed in 2008 by Matthew Tybor, also referred to as "The Bunny" – hence the rabbit mask and persona he incorporates in the group. Tybor was quickly joined by Chris Hutka, known as "The Bear," who likewise wore a bear mask. The wearing of the bear mask has remained consistent throughout the history of fluctuating clean vocalists. In a 2011 Dead Press interview, when asked about the meaning behind the band name and the masks, Tybor stated, "I'm a little weird and a little off, but it was nothing in-depth or a serious meaning behind it. It was more of a random, incoherent thought and I ran with it". The Bunny (Tybor) employs screamed vocals for the band while The Bear provides clean vocals, and the band's first five albums featured Chris Hutka as The Bear. Their sixth album A Liar Wrote This features Hutka's then-replacement, Haley Roback, and their seventh album The Way We Rust features Joseph Garcia, who had toured with the band in the past.
Throughout the band's formative years and first three albums, they failed to maintain a consistent lineup, cycling through 10 different instrumentalists up to the release of 2012's The Stomach for It. For the recording of their fourth album Stories, they worked with studio musicians Doug White, a guitarist and the owner of Watchmen Recording Studios and Matt McGinley, the current drummer of Gym Class Heroes. The duo would work with Tybor for the band's following two albums Food Chain and A Liar Wrote This. In 2012, Tybor reduced the band's membership to two vocalists, and began touring with a roster of regularly changing musicians.
The project's original clean vocalist Hutka had maintained a fluctuating relationship with Tybor and the rest of the band, departing three different times: once for a short time in 2012 following the release of The Stomach for It, the second time in 2013 shortly after the release of Stories, and a final time in late 2014. Hutka was featured on all of the band's releases before his final departure. In July of 2021, nine months after the release of Afterglow, Tybor announced via the band's official Facebook and Instagram pages that Hutka had died, To date, Tybor, being The Bunny the Bear's only consistent member, has written all of the music and lyrics for his outfit's eight albums, three of which landed on the top 25 of Billboard's U.S. Heatseekers chart.
The Bunny the Bear headlines their Redstone Room engagement on September 29 with additional sets by Manhattan Blockade, KEEP IL, and Braver Than I, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $20-25, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)326-1333 and visiting CommonChordQC.org.
