Last night Girls played the Gothic Theater as they tour for their most recent album Father, Son, Holy Ghost; Unknown Mortal Orchestra opened.
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Girls are a San Francisco-based rock band fronted by singer-songwriter Christopher Owens, along with bassist and producer Chet White. In 2009 they released their first full-length album. Simply titled Album, Girls blended Owens's Elvis Costello-like voice with the sounds of 70s garage-surf rock. While much attention was paid to Owens's upbringing in the Children of God cult, their music won praise from both mainstream and indie media outlets.
The band followed up their first proper album one year later with the Broken Dreams Club EP, which found Owens and White tweaking their sound slightly with the addition of slide guitars, organs, and backing female vocals that provided a distinctly country-tinge aura. With the release of Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Girls once again threw in another sonic wrinkle by dipping a bit more heavily into their psyche roots. Songs, particularly "Vomit," contain moments that could have been lifted straight off of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. But far from simply churning out classic rock imitations, the band has a knack for creating a sound that remains contemporary and fresh.
During Friday night's show, Girls played from all three of their releases. While their stage set-up was a lean, no-frills affair, the band (outside of one false start) put on a solid performance. Down- to mid-tempo numbers filled out the majority of the set list, but the audience seemed to revel in the songs's melancholia. But the band knew when they needed to throw in an upbeat rock songs like "Lust for Life" and the aforementioned "Vomit" (with requite guitars solos) to keep the show from stagnating. Below is a video of Girls playing "My Ma" last night:
Openers Unknown Mortal Orchestra tore through a half an hour to forty-five minutes worth of standard but enjoyable rock 'n roll. Towards the conclusion of their set, lead singer Ruban Nielson began to lose his voice, but not before playing some of their more crowd-friendly songs. Below is a video that contains an instrumental interlude from one of their songs:
Both bands will play tonight in Salt Lake City, UT and close out their tour on Sunday in Reno, NV.
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