Pennsylvanian artist Alex G, recently having released his new album Beach Music, stopped by the Che Café Collective for a crowded Friday night show.
By: Francesca Tirpak
Kansas band Your Friend, led by lead vocalist and songwriter Taryn Miller, opened the show with haunting vocals and intimate instrumental support. The songs, mostly taken from their newest full-length release, Gumption, feature found sounds and loops mixed with traditional melodies. On a crowded stage featuring two guitars, a bass, a drum kit, and a synthesizer, Taryn and their band was able to enrapture the audience with a perfect, chill atmosphere before the next bands came on.
NYC locals Porches, featuring lead singer/songwriter Aaron Maine, featured a set with a more upbeat feel, but still retained the same sad, hopeful atmosphere of their predecessor. Self proclaimed “dark muscle,” Maine released the long awaited debut full-length album Pool in February earlier this year, the newer music deviates from the darker, angrier emotions in his earlier works and creates beautiful and subtle pop-influenced songs.
Long-awaited by many a San Diego resident, Alex G’s band began their set with little introduction, though it wasn’t needed. Quickly having gained fame through DIY songs released on Bandcamp, Alex was able to grow in his popularity, especially recently with the band’s performances at South by Southwest and being signed with record label Domino and the concurrent release of the album Beach Music in October of last year.
Folded around the small stage like nothing the Che experiences on a normal basis, the crowd went wild to their starting song, “Soaker,” a short interlude off the album DSU that concisely introduced the classic lo-fi/alternative sound Alex G is known for. As the night wore on, the crowd was able to somehow find room to dance in the way they always do at shows like this, with subtle but quintessential movements that embodied the whole population of the room.