Gardens & Villa - Sandy Alex G -- Rock'n'Roll Hotel - Oct 4 2014

Sandy Alex G - This Philadelphia quartet was described to me as slacker rock, which was evident from start to finish in their set. They were laid back pretty much every step of the way, yet they still managed to add many twists and turns along their meandering path to create a vibrant 41 minutes of music. They could be thick and chunky or loose and jangly with easy psychedelic vocals that carried the tunes. This was quite enjoyable and the style and band's quirky humor worked well with the crowd. There was just enough skill in the guitar runs and a few songs that showed craftiness that belied their slacker image, but they are all the better for that. There certainly is nothing wrong with developing the skills so you can relax and use them well.

Gardens & Villa - The club is about half full tonight, but it would look even more full if this was the normal crowd of hangers-about. Instead, just about everyone has pushed forward as they are very much into what this fine pop band is doing. The sound is ultra-smooth from the clean soaring vocals to the shimmering pop sounds that are more keyboard than guitar all working off of a snappy rhythm section. This is a great sound that harkens back to the great 80s synth pop, but is also much smarter than some of that. The songs have hooks and just enough variety to keep me engaged. This is one of those bands that can win over a lot of fans from other genres, since they can rock out and have loads of skills. But they have plenty of their own fans here tonight and gave all of them a great Saturday night out.

Quote of the Night: From the opening band introducing their last song... "I think a lot of people are going to like this song because it's the best song ever written."