Artist: The Bears
Title: Live At The Club Cafe
Format: DVD
Genre: Rock-Progressive-Alternative
Label: Merging Media
Website
Adrian Belew

Adrian Belew is one of the most revered guitar players in the world yet his is not a household name like Clapton, Page or Hendrix. In my opinion, his voice is as recognizable and unique as his guitar playing. He has chosen to live a life out of the spotlight and remain in the background assisting such artist as Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Mariah Carey and countless others (see website for discography). I think he made a good choice, as his peace of mind and lifestyle are surely more private in comparison to those folks I just mentioned. His work most recently with King Crimson is exemplary and his band The Bears just keeps rolling right along.

The Bears are an interesting story. They met each other as children and grew up together playing in various bands and still record to this day. I cannot think of too many groups that started like that and are still together, actually I cannot think of one.

In this age of technology and the Internet, an artist must stay on top of what's hot and what's not, and record their music in non-traditional methods utilizing home studios and small venues while still making their output accessible via the web for their fans. Enter upstart companies like Merging Media, a company founded by experienced Internet entrepreneurs and digital media professionals to provide both consumers and businesses with quality multimedia content. Artists are finding the venue to be set up intimately in a professional manner with all the accommodations for a fantastic recoding of their performance, thereby enabling a smooth transfer to DVD for distribution.

Live At The Club Cafe is their first release on DVD and it features The Bears with their legendary guitarist Adrian Belew. I do not use the term legend loosely-Belew may not be recognized worldwide like many of his contemporaries; however, he is a legend to his peers and many intelligent music lovers, he in fact epitomizes the word legend. He is well-known innovator and pioneer of experimental guitar sounds.