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Chicago’s promoter’s ordinance: What the city wants, the city gets?
Published on 5/9/08
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On September 25, when Kevin Smith (the straight director of Clerks and a bear icon) started yakking about the bear lifestyle on Late Show with David Letterman—garnering big laughs as he spoke effusively about the gay subculture—one thing became clear: Bears have entered the mainstream. Passing references on shows like Top Chef, The Simpsons, and The Colbert Report have only confirmed that this growing cadre of gay men, known for their copious facial and body hair and husky statures, are now a part of American pop culture.
“There are times when my friends and I will go out to dinner and people will come up to us and ask if we’re on a football team or if we’re all brothers,” says Shannon Grady, a Minneapolis-based musician and self-identified bear. “Now people will come up to us and say, ‘Are you guys bears?’ The mainstream is slowly learning about this subculture.”
\Not that the bear lifestyle is anything new: It began in San Francisco during the ’80s and has grown substantially worldwide. Locally, guys have been participating in social groups like Great Lakes Bears Chicago and Bear Naked Chicago for quite some time. In print, there’s A Bear’s Life magazine, and in film there’s Bears, a documentary about the Mr. International Bear contest that will premiere in a couple of weeks at Reeling, the lesbian and gay film fest. Even the bear gourmand has Bear Cookin’ and More Bear Cookin’,cookbooks from local scribe PJ Gray.
But perhaps bears will be growling the loudest in our iPods. Not only is Scissor Sisters guitarist Babydaddy a bear icon, but Internet radio site Woobie Bear Music contains programming for and by bears, and Bearapalooza, an all-day festival of bear expression, is so popular it’s in its fifth year.
Bearapalooza also has spawned its first touring music festival, Bears on the Run, which hits Chicago Thursday 1. Created by Grady, Bears on the Run is an eight-state touring fest showcasing bear musicians.
“I was invited to go to Bearapalooza two years ago in Nashville and met all these great musicians and songwriters,” Grady says. “I was like, There has to be a way where we can bring this music to other cities and get a larger audience.”
Grady called a half dozen interested performers and created a two-week tour; each show offers three solid hours of bear music—that is, if there even is such a thing as bear music. The notion of bears as campers and outdoor-lovin’ fellas suggests folk and bluegrass, but no single genre defines Bears on the Run. The eclectic lineup includes Grady, who treads in acoustic rock; traditional folk singer Matthew Temple; hip-hopper and rapper Kendall; and straight-up rockers Nakia and Elijah Black (as well as stand-up comedian Bobaloo).
“Our common thread is that we’re bears, but our musical styles are all completely different,” Grady says. “I wanted to show that we’re more than just folk guys playing music. There’s this huge range of musical styles in the bear community.”
Grady also wants to show his community that there are other things besides just sex and alcohol. While bear fund-raising events and pageants like the Mr. International Bear contest are common, so are bear runs, group gatherings that typically include dinner and a pool or dance party followed by an orgy. “There’s more to life than having a bear run,” he says. “I want [bears] to come together to listen to a large variety of music. This is just one more alternative.”
Grady and his fellow artists plan to play the coasts in hopes of expanding bears’ fan hive to include both gay and straight audiences. With bears’ increasing mainstream appeal, we may all soon be sampling the same sweet honey.
Bears on the Run plays Spin on Thursday 1.
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