[samcam + live review] Ga'an + Fat History Month + Skimask @ Problem House

GA'AN, Skimask, and Fat History Month tore up Allston’s Problem House last night. In between fits of allergic sneezing in a dusty basement, I stood at the front of the room, next to the only light bulb, soaking up every second of it.

The set from Chicago trio Ga'an consisted of jams that swayed nimbly across a psychedelic progressive soundscape, very reminiscent of Manhattan’s electro psych band Gang Gang Dance. According to Ga’an, most of their set was improvised, and many songs didn’t have titles due to the fact that they wrote them that morning. The video above is one of them. 

Allston’s Skimask -- a member of our Class of 2011 feature, which we also captured on file a few months ago at Great Scott -- followed Ga’an. Their bizarre and unclassifiable songs confused me, but got everyone else jumping and hollering. The between song banter might have been even more confusing, with lots of what I think might have been inside jokes thrown back and forth between the audience and lead vocalist Andy Brown. It’s gonna take me a while, but I think I’ll love Skimask after a few more listens.

Fellow Allstonians Fat History Month, equal parts Built To Spill and Tera Melos, closed the night. The duo’s echoey math rock made the drunk kids push each other and the stoned dudes shut their eyes and bob their heads in sheer bliss. Skimask's Andy Brown, after heavily lauding Fat History Month during his set, spent their entire set on his knees with his face in his hands, averting his eyes from the band’s divine indie power. The rest of us stayed on our feet, but still felt it.