Patch in the Park: Don't Upset the Bear

Comparing one band to another sonically similar band is commonplace — it's an easy shorthand for what's going on musically: Dylan sounds like Woody Guthrie, the guy from Muse like Thom Yorke, The Hold Steady is just Springsteen for the sniffling indie kids.

But the ways each of those musical acts is alike often end up revealing far less than the ways those same bands are different.

For Don't Upset the Bear, the comparisons jump out immediately (think early 2000s alt-country, mid- to late-1990s alternative), but they can't do justice for the Midland Park quartet blending sincere talent and edgy propulsion into a lapidary live show.

Patch sat down with the band after a memorable — in spite of the wind — performance in Ridgewood's Van Neste Park as part of a series of local shows being recorded and broadcast on Patch.

Frontman/guitarist Ryan Hardt and drummer Glen Monturi are quick to note that the band felt different beginning with their very first practices a year ago. Back then they were known as Big Dylan and the Dylanettes — a name that fortunately did not stick.

"We just meshed real well," Hardt said. "We have a great chemistry and just bounce off one another," Monturi quickly pitched in.

Monturi, who positioned himself as the de facto point person in our interview with the band, said that what pushes Don't Upset the Bear to stand out from everything else is a desire to stand out.

"Everything [on the radio] is just rehashed and it's just the same song over and over again," Monturi said. "Our band is the more humanistic element that's gone in a lot of music, you can tell that it's four guys playing."

Hardt, Monturi, guitarist Eric Meyers and bassist Brian Sullivan have the goal of capturing something distinct when they play together.

"When we're actually practicing and writing the songs trying to think of the weirdest most awkward sound ... something that will completely grab people's attention," Hardt said.

And the result isn't as jarring as you'd expect, it's more arresting.

Listen to the start and stop rambling that works so well at the end of "The Ballad of Steve Stevenson" or the dusky swagger of "Here I Am" and you'll understand what Hardt means.

The biggest peek into why the stomp-rock aesthetic of Don't Upset the Bear's rollicking sound works so well might come from an offhand joke from Eric Meyers.

"When we write our songs all we think about is 'Will Bret Michaels and Bono enjoy this?'" said the guitarist, a coy smile peeking out from behind his shaggy beard.

To listen to some of the group's home recordings, download tracks from the band's EP on bandcamp.

If you'd like to catch Don't Upset the Bear live drop by Shortway's Barn in Hawthorne this Saturday night where they'll be playing with Glen Rock band Average Girl.