Minus the Bear

7:30 p.m. Monday, July 12. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street.

Jul 7, 2010 at 4:00 am

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The Line 6 DL4 is an impressive guitar pedal capable of recording phrases and replaying them either forward, backward or pitch-shifted. Minus the Bear's Dave Knudson is a walking advertisement for these sound-processing behemoths: He utilizes four DL4s simultaneously to generate nuggets of ear candy, as on the bleeping, synthesizer-aping introduction of "Into the Mirror," from this year's Omni. Although still centered on no-nonsense drumming and Jake Snider's deadpan baritone, Omni is a departure for the Seattle quintet — and is a far cry from 2002's sparkling, Don Caballero-esque Highly Refined Pirates. As wispy indie-rockers, Minus the Bear once mastered the art of two-hand guitar tapping. Now, the band creates sonically unprecedented melodies by tap-dancing on its pedals.