Wednesday night I saw Love is Chemicals (myspace) and Geographer (formerly Rooftop Vigil, formerly Parasol) at 12 Galaxies.

There was a small, but growing, crowd when Geographer when on. They’d turned into a three-piece (from a four-piece) since I last saw them a couple months ago. Front man Mike Deni now handles all the vocals, plays keys and guitar. Nate covers the cello and Brian’s on drums. Some of their keyboards are now sequenced and either Nate or Brian starts those, depending on the song.

Geographer played well again. The band was tight and the music was engaging. Mike’s a funny front man and for once I found myself thinking that a front man could talk more. The sound for their set was great (which was probably helped by bringing their own sound engineer) and they sounded expansive, if not as much as when they were at Great American.

Their set was fun and that was probably helped by having a handful of superfans in the front row, dancing crazy.

Also of note: Geographer’s next scheduled performance is when I host them on KZSU on April 30. Stay tuned for more details.

It had also been a couple months since I saw Love is Chemicals. They put on a good set. They’re solid musicians and they played a tight set. Unfortunately, the venue sound wasn’t as good as Geographer and that’s when I realized that Geographer’s sound guy was probably pretty good. Theirs is a more pensive music, I feel, and I think I could use some more time for it to sink in.

In full disclosure, I was on Geographer’s guest list and someone from Love is Chemicals let me have one of their drink tickets. I don’t believe these things effected on my judgement about the show.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live review, photos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.