Venue: The EARL, Atlanta
Support: Port O’Brien, Sara Lov
In the Company of: Thomas S.

Alex Brown Church is an artist on the verge of success…to the average American, that is. While your neighbor may think you’re talking about the Jack London novel of the same name, Church has quietly built a fan base and some much-deserved exposure for his band Sea Wolf. Hailing from California, Sea Wolf has a song on the soundtrack to the new film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Sharing the bill with such alt-rock gods as Death Cab For Cutie, Muse, and Thom Yorke, this is sure to garner Sea Wolf the respect and attention they deserve.

After attending the prestigious NYU film school, Church returned to California and formed the band Irving, finding marginal success. When the singer/songwriter realized his musical tastes were veering from Irving’s sound, he dissolved that band and formed Sea Wolf. The second full-length release, White Water, White Bloom, has rocketed the band to the forefront of the American indie rock scene.

Sara Lov started off the evening with an acoustic guitar and a vinyl record. That’s correct, her vinyl band consisted of her real band’s recordings of the songs which they could not play since they did not accompany her on this tour. Don’t think karaoke, because this talented singer/songwriter didn’t really need them. But it was a novel approach that worked well. Lov showed off her folk music chops, preparing us for the evening to follow. And she even covered Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage,” if you can believe it.