Last night, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, aka Shakey Graves, hit Union Transfer for the spring Sleepwalker Tour. I went in to this one blind, and was definitely plenty weirded out while the stage was eerily set by guys in Mexican wrestling masks and capes (???). I actually texted Dylan while we were separated in the crowd, "Are we at the right show?" It's funny, though, because my first impression while I waited for the music to start represented absolutely nothing of the band's real sound. The stage was decorated with a dilapidated cityscape and a stack of retro television sets that even flickered to the beat of the songs.

Slowly, Garcia took the stage solo, before the lights went up, and opened the night with "Only Son," a slow building anthem that set the tone for the night. It was classic Shakey Graves before we knew what we were really in for.

This was one of those shows where you just didn't know what to expect. There were seamless transitions between each song, with practically no breaks. There were moments where Garcia would absolutely wail and pound on his guitar and carry the rest of the band on his shoulders with these elevated solos. There were calm moments where the drums cut out and the guitar was barely a whisper and the lights were dim. It was a beautiful, weird, surreal, erratic show. For the first tour playing with a full band, it was good. It was so in sync.

From what I did know about Shakey Graves's discography, I knew they played all the favorites and then some:

Only Son
Foot On Her Bed (possibly the saddest song of the night0
Big Bad Wolf
The Perfect Parts
Pansy Waltz
My Neighbor
Climb On the Cross
Excuses
Dining Alone ( a new "shlumpy" relatable jam)
Family and Genus (a personal favorite)
Kids These Days
Counting Sheep
Mansion Door
Roll the Bones
Tomorrow
Word of Mouth
Late July

Encore:
Dearly Departed (a magnificent, epic, end)

Shakey Graves is just cool. There's not much more to say. Garcia is a raw talent with a crazy sense of humor. He's real, and it's more than evident both onstage and in his recorded performances. I'm happy I took the leap and went with this one. That's going to be our theme of the summer - trying new things, stopping by shows we know nothing about to grow and learn.

And - you can find Dylan's photos featured on The Key. So that's pretty cool, too.

We got weird with Shakey Graves's first full-band show at Union Transfer

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