Review: Allah-Las at Freo.Social

Allah-Las at Freo.Social
w/ Maston
Sunday, December 10, 2023

The sixties are a treasure trove for modern musical influences, and the number of upstart bands cribbing the smooth sounds of surf rock would range in the thousands, yet Allah-Las may go down as its finest purveyors this generation. It's been over ten years since their first LP, and their latest, Zuma 85, sees the band still cranking out surf rock and psych light that is still consistently good. They stopped by Freo.Social for the first time since COVID and brought the sun and sand from California with them.

Opening proceedings was Maston, a composer and multi-instrumentalist who has collaborated with Allah-Las before and, indeed, later joined them on synth. He played a series of at times atmospheric, at times jazzy key-driven soundscapes across backing tracks, and it set a fine little mood. If only it didn't feel so knowingly haphazard, with Maston coming on a half hour after his allocated start time and acknowledging the truncated nature of his self-described “micro set." Nevertheless, it was a fine taster of his material.

Allah-Las had no such issues as they played a wide-ranging set that didn't leave anyone wanting. They hardly reserved any time for banter either, though when frontman Miles Michaud spoke, it felt lovably Californian, with a few asides about sadly returning to winter-beaten US shores. He was prepared for it too, inexplicably donning a Russian-style fur hat on a relatively warm Sunday night. Miles and his band mainly let their music do the talking, though, in a masterclass on how to spin a sunkissed groove.

They opened with The Stuff from their latest, a beautiful, slower-paced number that was flanged to hell and back and immediately had the audience grooving. The band played a cross-selection of material but kept it relatively heavy on earlier numbers interspersed with newer material. It was interesting to see the two sides of their style play off one another, with the earlier material having a more ragged and garage rock-type quality (think Surfin' Bird or Louie Louie). Busman's Holiday, for instance, came alive with cavernous reverb and a biting Jagger-esque vocal. Don't You Forget It was another early number that sounded primordial as hell with a groove as old as time, and Catalina was another crowd favourite from the early days whose arpeggiated riffing demonstrated the beauty of simplicity. The vocals caught just the right balance, slightly snarling yet laid back.

The new material was arguably the more interesting stuff to hear live, with more variety and polish. Jelly was a cute and languid little number driven by a warbling slide riff, and it translated excellently live. Later in the set, the undeniable grooves of album highlight Right on Time picked up any stragglers that hadn't started dancing yet. Light Yearly changed things up with its more mysterious groove and metronomic drums. The encore saw them dive into the more introspective The Fall, but the band made sure to end on a classic note with Catamaran, a return to their first album with those huge, reverbed garage rock vibes carrying us through to the very end.

It was a sterling set in all, from a band that one can't imagine delivering a bad show. The dancing did not let up in a set that showcased both the band's fine playing and their excellent back catalogue. Like the California sun, may the Allah-Las keep burning.

MATIJA ZIVKOVIC

Photos by Linda Dunjey