Phoebe Bridgers and Alex G

Phoebe Bridgers and her band were amazing. She's one cool songwriter/musician. Seeing her live made me a bigger fan than I already was. I really don't think she knows how talented she is. What would have made a better experience is the fault of the venue. The Constellation Room will oversell tickets for popular acts creating an overcrowded room. If the fire marshal were to have shown up there definitely would have been a problem. There were many people in front me that left because it was too packed. Many more people tried to enter the room and turned around and left after seeing there was no way to fit one more sardine in the can. Shame on The Observatory mgmt.! This is the only knock I have on the place. I love The Observatory. Been there dozens of times. They have the best staff in the business and the amazing experiences far outnumber the not so amazing experiences.

I saw Alex Giannascoli and his band play to an attentive audience in a small basement. The band were tight, but not so much that it became a predictable playback of what his records sound like. The band play off of each other and inject a lot of energy, creativity and humour into their performance.

The set started out with selections from his latest release "DSU". They meandered into choices from his previous release "Trick", including "Animals" where Alex punctuates the vocals with screamo-style wails and garners a lone crowd-surfer over the otherwise quietly nodding audience.

Later on in the set, Alex takes a few requests from the audience and then ends with two unexpected covers. They play "Linger" by the Cranberries (featuring support act Girlpool on vocals) and then nearly talk themselves out of playing "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind. However, the drummer steels their resolve by exclaiming that it is "totally a party song", and they soldier through every verse with ease.

A+++ would gig again.