Grouplove @ The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA 4/16/12

 In support of their debut album "Never Trust a Happy Song," Los Angeles based GROUPLOVE played one of their first headlining-tour shows at downtown Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre. I was unsure of exactly what to expect from this up-and-coming multi-vocalist band, having only heard their ubiquitous "Colours" and the incredibly catchy video/single "Tongue Tied." While the songs were indeed happy (which may have you not wanting to trust them, per their own advice), they did however have an underlying resonance & joyful comradery that shown through in nearly every song: aka: the show was quirky & pretty awesome...

Reminiscent of some kind of a Southern Californian indie-rock love-child-mix between Modest Mouse, early REM, Arcade Fire, and The Flaming Lips; the band consists of a cornucopia of discordant laid-back surf looking, tho enthusiastic sounding members including: Hannah Hooper (keyboards/vocals), Christian Zucconi (vocals/guitar), Sean Gadd (Bass/Vocals), Ryan Rabin (drummer), and Andrew Wessen (guitar/mandolin).

Having made the decision to officially form GROUPLOVE on the Greek isle of Crete, the band set to out by recoding their self-titled ep in the 2010 recording session at Ryan Rabin's Los Angeles studio. From that point, the band has been busy playing the LA area continually, as well as being national support for Florence and the Machine, and later for Young the Giant.

Meanwhile back at the night's show: the band played nearly their entire catalog-to-date, having the packed venue bouncing along one buoyant tune after tune. After their Coachella appearances the band is continuing across the US on their first headlining tour. Check them out on tour & see what I'm talking about...

Photo/Review by Clovis IV

www.fb.com/clovis.iv

...Setlist...
Lovely Cup
Itchin' on a Photograph
Naked Kids
Love Will Save Your Soul
Betty's A Bombshell
Gold Coast
Spun
Chloe
Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten
Slow
...Encore...
Don't Say Oh Well
Tongue Tied
Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston cover)
Colours

...Tour Dates...
30-Apr  Carrboro, NC
1-May   Asheville, NC
2-May   Charlottesville, VA
5-May   Irvine, CA
8-May   Montreal, Canada
9-May   Toronto, Canada
11-May Detroit, MI
12-May Chicago, IL
13-May Milwaukee, WI
15-May Minneapolis, MN
16-May Des Moines, IA
17-May Omaha, NE
19-May Denver, CO
20-May Aspen, CO
22-May Salt Lake City, UT
23-May Boise, ID
25-May Portland, OR
28-May George, WA
2-Jun    Mountain View, CA
3-Jun    Chula Vista, CA
7-Jun    Manchester, TN
8-Jun    Manchester, TN
9-Jun    Manchester, TN
10-Jun  Manchester, TN
11-Jun  Philadelphia, PA
12-Jun  New York, NY
13-Jun  Washington, DC
14-Jun  Boston, MA
14-Jul   Cincinnati, OH
21-Jul   Dover, DE
18-Aug Tokyo, Japan
19-Aug Osaka, Japan