Geographer & Freelance Whales @ The Mezzanine October 18th

Inching closer and closer to the stage as people packed into the sold out Geographer and Freelance Whales show last week at  The Mezzanine cheers of excitement were heard as the hour long wait ended and Geographer took the stage. 

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 

Blanketed in artificial fog and dark lighting, the three piece SF based band found their places: lead vocalist Michael Deni  headed to his synthesizers at stage left, Nathan Blaz took a seat behind his electric cello (electric cello?!) at stage right and Brian Ostreicher tucked into his drum set comfortably set up behind the band and after the first song of the night Deni exclaimed, "there really is no place like home!"

Geographer's dreamy electric dance party kept an even keel of up-beat dance inducing tunes, like the 4th song of the night, "Life of Crime" and less danceable songs throughout their set which consisted for the most part of material off of Myth released earlier this year. 

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

(Geographer. Photo by: Marc Fong)

Deni's energetic stage presence never missed a beat as he and Blaz tag teamed on synthesizers during one song , he banged on the symbols while Ostreicher drummed , he  gave hive fives to people in the front row before jumping into the crowd and dancing among fans while he preformed "Kites". Wrapping  up their show, Geographer awarded their loyal fans with an un-heard of opening-act encore! 

 "Aelous" the haunting and some what chilling first song off of Freelance Whales second album Diluvia, was the first song they played last Thursday night. Before continuing on with the harmonic track "Land Features", frontman Judah Dadone said that San Francisco feels like a home away from home (home being Brooklyn New York) acknowledging  that bandmate Chuck Criss is from the Bay Area. 

(Freelance Whales. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 The Freelance Whales' impressively extensive array of instruments and the band's collective ability to play a different instrument every song is remarkable! Made up of 5 band members and upwards of 11 different instruments  it should go with out saying that they utilized the entire stage at The Mezzanine as I am sure they do at every venue.

Everyone in the band also contributes to vocals:  with Dadone on lead vocals on most tracks, Doris Cellar offered a soft female touch, taking the lead on the lustful, fun loving "Spitting Image" which was heard a little further into the set.

 

The ability that Freelance Whales have to harmonize in an almost nautical like ambiance cannot be denied however the subdued vibe found on and throughout Dulivia is inescapable, live and otherwise. 

(Freelance Whales. Photo by: Marc Fong)

 Though spirits seem damped in their new songs, Freelance Whales looked as though they were having fun during their performance and the audience swayed the rest of the night away to songs on the set list which included new tracks:  "Follow Through",  "Spitting Image", "Red Star", "Locked Out", "Winter Seeds", "Dig into Waves" and "Emergence Exit"
along with older tracks off of Weathevanes: "Generator - Second Floor", "Ghosting", "Generator - First  Floor", "Hannah", "Location". 

The sounds of Geographer paired with Freelance Whales is a pairing close to perfection.  

You won't want to miss this bill, they're on tour through November 3rd!