Re-Viewed: Ghostland Observatory

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 26, 2006 1:00PM

Tuesday night at the Abbey Pub, we got to witness Ghostland Observatory in a smaller venue than their energetic show put on at ACL this year. Tuesday was the last night of their short two week tour, and they had sold out of all their merchandise and no one could grab the music of this band (sorry, it's not a band - it's an agreement between friends) out of Austin.

We were thrilled to hear their harder-than-Scissor- Sisters dance music that mixes the best beats and sounds from the 80s with just enough guitar to give it a kick. And that's not even mentioning Aaron Behren's amazing swagger, posing, and perfect mic tricks.

It was a Tuesday night, but it was hard to tell by all those bodies dancing around to "Sad Sad City" and enjoying the synthesized-vocal manipulations by Thomas Turner during "Stranger Lover". GLO pulls off great juxtapositions between slow and fast beats on "Shoot 'Em Down" and wowed with their ability to pull off long jams with a purpose a la The Doors, as opposed to long drawn out jams that go nowhere forever, with "Midnight Voyage".

After a two song encore of "Silver City" and "Rich Man", the evening was over. We left wanting to go out dancing all night long and forget about our day job. Listen to some of these songs and more over at The Hype Machine and be looking for them the next time they come to town. We hope it's not too long, 'cuz we don't like to wait for a guaranteed night of fun.