Review by Dave Anastasi

Having attended Berklee College Of Music just a few years before the founding members of Apollo Sunshine, I had a bias towards them early on. I picked up their self-titled album, and listened to it— a lot. I was drawn to their unbridled creativity, their musicianship, their songwriting ability, and their boundless energy. Since the critics' reception of that release has been far eclipsed by their "legendary" live shows, I figured I was in for a treat when I heard about their return to Boston. It turned out to be a disappointment.

The set started strongly with Flip!, one of my favorite tracks from their most recent album. The band was tight, and full of spunk, and the show was full of promise. Things deteriorated from there.

Perhaps the issue was that the band had just spent 40 hours in a rental van from Texas prior to the show. Or maybe the crowd just wasn't giving off enough energy. Or maybe I just had the wrong expectations. Whatever the case may be, Apollo Sunshine seemed a bit off to me. Lead singer Jesse Gallagher was plagued with technical issues, repeatedly disrupting the flow of the set— first his acoustic guitar, and then his keyboards weren't making it to the PA system. He kept the club's sound guys on their toes all night.

One of the things I love about Apollo Sunshine's studio recordings is the ingenuity and subtlety within each song. Unfortunately, these attributes seemed to get lost in the noise within the live context. Clever arrangements seemed to degenerate into "jams" whose main substance seemed to be the shaggy hairdos that were thrashing around the stage.

The set's finale was a rather flat version of the fantastic Today Is The Day, in which the band invited the members of opening act The Self Righteous Brothers to join in the debauchery. They all noodled on this one for a good 15 minutes, trading solos. The crowd seemed to perk up when guitarist Sam Cohen's turn to improvise came around. This guy has got some serious talent.

For the encore, both bands began to jam over James Brown's Sex Machine. We left the club around 10 minutes into the binge, when Jesse began screaming into the mic and asking his bandmates one at a time how their day was going.

I don't mean to sound too negative. I really do like this band, and there were a few highlights— they absolutely nailed the crowd pleasers Magnolia and Phyliss, and overall, this is a great group of musicians. I guess I was just hoping for more songs and less jamming.