Thomas Breeden
    Staff Writter

Local 4-piece alt-rock band Bear With Me returns to Greensboro on Saturday, Sept. 5 to headline a show at Greene Street Club. The show starts at 7 p.m. and also features fellow local bands All My Circuits, Broken Harmonics, Miniguns and Easy On The I’s. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

The band has exploded since their founding in May 2012 here in Greensboro. Members Joe Davis (vocals), Carter Harris (guitar), Ralph Butcher (drums), and Jonathan Parker (bass, recording) tout their experiences of getting to play alongside their life-long musical influences like Fall Out Boy, Paramore, New Politics and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

“Playing with the bands you have grown up listening to and driving down the road with it cranked full blast—feeling the energy and then being a part of the magic is unbelievable,” bassist Jonathan Parker told The Carolinian. “We are very humbled and can’t get enough of being a part of a movement.”

Guitarist Carter Harris added, “It’s one of the greatest honors to play with bands that you used to cover back in high school in a friend’s garage.”

Those experiences continued last night when Bear With Me opened for the Plain White T’s at Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem.

According to drummer Ralph Butcher, Bear With Me began in 2012 when he and bassist Parker left another project because they wanted “something serious, [in a] rock/alternative style.”

“We had the rhythm section but needed those sweet, sweet riffs,” Butcher continued. Those sweet riffs came with the addition of guitarist Carter in a jam session where the three of them “clicked really well.” They soon found that what the 3-piece lacked was a front man with crowd-engaging charisma. Bear With Me found that person in Joe Davis.

“I randomly ran into Joe at the Bojangles on UNCG campus one morning, and the rest is history. So… Bojangles basically brought us together,” Butcher joked.

A Bojangles-centric creation story is fitting for a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The group’s name, Bear With Me, is a popular expression-turned-amusing pun with the addition of their logo: a fearsome bear. Vocalist Joe Davis calls it a good combination of the members’ “determination and fierce motivation” juxtaposed with their playfulness in presenting their music.

“We want to be fun, hard-hitting, energized and tasteful all at the same time,” drummer Butcher explained.

All of the members of Bear With Me balance their rock-and-roll lives with day jobs to help pay the rent: Davis sells tree-climbing gear, Harris works at Aldo Shoes and studies at UNCG and Butcher has a flexible schedule as a locksmith. At the end of the day, Harris said, it’s “always nice getting to have a band where meeting up and rehearsing feels like a break in your day. You just get to unwind and play music with your friends while still working it like a business.”

That sense of love echoes through the members of the group. “Music!” Parker exclaimed, “That is the day-in, day-out thing that drives all of us. Music is art. Music is relationship. Music is business. If you truly love what you do, all of the things it takes to ‘make it’ become possible because you are still breathing.”

Bear With Me looks forward to performing at Greene Street, especially since they put together a show with their favorite bands from the area, which are are made up of some of their closest friends. They are a band that enjoys playing energetic shows to energetic crowds and loves to create new relationships with other musicians, fans, and the music community as a whole.

As for the future of Bear With Me, the boys are hard at work on new tours and shows, recording and releasing new music and a lot of other projects. Their goals are to be happy, healthy and take the world by storm.

The band has released an eponymous EP and two singles at bwmband.bandcamp.com. Their most recent album, “Tomorrow’s Visions,” released April 25 is now available on iTunes. Attendees of the Sept. 5 show will receive a copy of the album with admission. Visit bwmband.com for updates on the band’s touring schedule, new music releases and other news.