Show Pics: Geographer @ The Mohawk (5/30)

Jeez. So I was walking the dog, thinking about all the photos left to edit from X Games Austin and I realized that I still owed Geographer a Show Pics post. After a great set at FFF8, I was looking for ward to checking out the band in a smaller venue, my home venue, The Mohawk. Joining them for the show was Idle Hands, ATH faves Empires and a great aftershow lineup of Hovvdy and Woozy.

Click through, peeps.

Frist up was Idle Hands. I want to like them, they just fell into the trap of the airquote indie rock band a bit. The material was solid. I think they have the stuff. It is in there. They have charisma and can play, for sure, just a bit too much show. Reserving judgment.

Empires was an ACL surprise for the ATH team. Where Idle Hands lost credibility, Empires has it in spades. There is a genuine rock and roll factor to the band, mostly in black, sweat, proper punctuations, solid presence. With lead vocals in the lower register, there is a slight darkness. The crowd seemed to buy in and side stage buzz was running pretty high.

Geographer is the name of this project, Michael Deni is the ring leader. At his front and center stage location, Deni uses several effects and looping pedals with synths and guitar to build songs while the backing band uses their tools like the drumkit, cello, various guitars to fill in the gaps. It lends to a very full sound, well-crafted. The older songs are my jams, they are the more solemn and powerful songs in the setlist; I recall “Kites” had the beautiful melancholy that you can attach yourself to and then be lost in the crowd. “Need” was the best song I heard from the new stuff. Layered loveliness that has an edge…

On to the inside stage, Woozy blew me away. In the live setting, it was like REM circa 1989 drove head on into Sunny day Real Estate’s tour bus with a lower register female vocal peppered in for awesome. Their set was nostalgic and brand new. You know it is good when the sound guy start grinning like a maniac. Hovvdy was my exit soundtrack, pleasing one at that.