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Garage rock is the stuff dreams are made of! California’s Allah-Las have been perfecting their sound for over 15 years and across 5 albums and they continue to get it right with guitar focused jams featuring just the right amount of pedal effects between Miles Michaud and Pedrum Siadatian. Additionally, all of the band members sing as well, creating some memorable harmonies the crowd enjoyed singing along to. The band featured a few songs from their most recent album, Zuma 85 such as “Jelly,” “The Fall,” and “Right on Time” with some old favorites like “No Werewolf,” “Catalina,” “Sandy,” and “Polar Onion” thrown in for a 65 minute set featuring an encore including “Catamaran.” Frank Maston, who opened up the night and played songs reminiscent of early Moon Safari era Air, layered the songs farther with the presence of his melodic keyboard playing.
Another great way the band created energy is visually with colorful backgrounds and moody colorful lights to give a silhouetted effect of their forms and make the sound gems gain a slight ambiance at times too. With a spectacular balance of rhythms and dreamy effects. Allah-Las played up their lingering chord progressions just right to create a certain reverie between moments of solid guitar rifts with consistent drum beats from Matthew Correia and bass playing from Spencer Dunham to create the glue to hold those more prominent rhythms together! The five of them really felt in sync for every track for a dynamic evening of music.
Though it was the last night of their tour, Allah-Las still played an engaging albeit somewhat short set that left the crowd yearning for more. Although they joked it was their last show ever and they were retiring, one can be hopeful they’ll be back again touring before too long. The band also threw a bouquet of flowers out to the audience when they came out for the encore and insisted to the person who caught it, “You have to be in a band now!”
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