“Thanks for watching us…We’re a great band, viagra 60mg and ” said Alex G as he floated between “Freak” and “Geek” around the far left corner of the Sinclair stage. Glued to their respective mics, buy the rest of his Philadelphian four-piece followed in awkward suit.
Fast forward an hour and a hundred knee bounces later when sharp-dressed Gardens & Villa flooded the venue with synthy grooves and synchronized lighting for aesthetic. Attendees danced flamboyantly as I realized that a garage was the last place the room resembled.
The result: a weird casserole between the two groups that, mind in cliché terms, somehow “hit the spot.”
Alex G opened the show with a statement full of what fictionalized Jack Black would call “stickittothemaneosis.” The four-piece’s overall style, musically, visually, and interactively screamed, “We’re young so listen to us. Damnit.” And with the sort of cannabis-fueled confidence of any self-respecting garage band, the group definitely proved themselves worthy of the space.
“After Ur Gone,” the first track off of this past June’s full-length DSU, hooked me in from the start with its simple, steady build and made for an accessible first song of the night. Other standouts were, by nature, Alex’s songs that defy their initial immaturity. Upon hearing “Mary is the girl that I wanna fuck” in the 2012 track “Mary,” I easily predicted just what the sexually frustrated anthem would talk about, but I wasn’t expecting the siren to have “big sharp teeth” or a “leather heart.” And as Alex concluded the melodically sultry song with Mary’s catch phrase “I am real and you are not,” I not only heard Alex’s musical straddle between boy and man, I felt it.
“Somebody keeps laughing at me, and I don’t like it,” Alex said after aggressively bobbing through a few songs like his future rock star self. To this, I just smiled and hoped he understood that the music was enough to “prove to mom” the importance of his art. Just listen to “Forever” off of the group’s 2012 album TRICK, and you’ll catch my drift.
As the lights dimmed between sets, I should have used the darkness as a palate cleanser. When Santa Barbarian (that can’t be right) Gardens & Villa stepped on stage, the previously presented garage vibe went out the window, leaving clean-cut blazers, guy-liner and, of course, a wooden flute.
Gifting the crowd with plenty of tracks off of last February’s album Dunes, the five-piece probably delivered the closest thing to ‘70s groove culture that I’ll ever experience. Songs like “Dominoe,” “Colony Glen” and my personal favorite off the album “Bullet Train” were recognized by most from their first couple of bass-powered thumps and aptly followed up with widespread this-is-why-I’m-single hip thrusts.
The set was also speckled with a fair share of slower jams, including the beautifully composed “Chrysanthemums,” a favorite with the iPhone videographers in the crowd. Documentation was well justified considering the emotion that the group’s front man Chris Lynch poured into the electro-ballad. If there was any denying his perfection on mic, it was probably coming from the secretly jealous PDA-driven couple behind me. Sorry kiddos, but, in the game of passion, Lynch won.
Appropriately so, Gardens & Villa combined both tempos in their encore. A simplistic “Minnesota” combined soaring vocals with standard piano to make for my favorite track of the night. The fact that it made me nostalgic for a certain mid-western state to which I had never visited indicated the song’s success in my opinion.
To end the night more characteristically, the lo-fi pop group banged out an smooth rendition of “Orange Blossom,” a standout track off of the group’s self-titled 2011 album. The groovy send-off was certainly well received, and without further adieu, I’ll admit it: the base slaps put Seinfeld transition music to shame.
Fortunately for me, the stars have a knack for aligning every time I hit up the Sinclair on a week night. Thursday was no exception, despite the its contrasting flavors. I’d eat that casserole again.
