Ships of the Sea’s North Garden filled with show goers as the Los Angeles-based band Sea Wolf took the stage as part of The Savannah Music Festival which started last Wednesday.
What was once an intimate project in Alex Church’s living room filled the venue with full, soothing and powerful songs. The band’s sound has been described as indie-folk, but Church’s songs are not confined to just one style or genre of music.
Alex Church approached the microphone with his acoustic guitar in hand. With Lisa Fendelander on the keyboards, Joey Ficken on drums, Scott Leahy on electric guitar, and Eliot Lorango on bass, the band worked as one to deliver every note with precision. Equipped with many different percussion instruments, such as tambourines, castanets and maracas, they created the same textures we hear on Sea Wolf’s songs through a record player.
In between songs, Church told the crowd it was his first time in Savannah and that the band had the chance to walk around the city earlier in the day. It was the only Southern show on their tour and admitted he thought “[Savannah] is cool.”
He went on to explain that the band’s name is from the Jack London novel, “The Sea-Wolf.” “So it is very fitting that we are playing here,” Church said about the Ships of the Sea.
Beyond the rows of chairs close to the stage there were people at tables and some crowded around heat lamps. Others watched in the back while sipping on drinks. Since some of Sea Wolf’s songs are on the softer side, the hum of conversation began to disrupt the intimate atmosphere.
But the band grabbed their attention with an older song, “Black Dirt,” which was heavier, louder and sounded more like rock than folk. Grace Furnas, from Cleveland, Ohio, said, “It was loud, but unique” and that she loved the scenery of the venue. The wood-beamed awning allowed for the band to play as intensely (or as softly) as they wished.
Ficken’s cymbals were crisp and clear. Fendelander’s keyboards were comforting, playful, and intensified exactly when needed. Leahy played several guitars throughout the performance. Lorango smoothly laid in powerful bass lines and played percussion instruments as did Fendelander and Ficken.
“I really liked his work on the acoustic guitar, [Church] did a great job,” said Randy Furnas, from Cleveland, Ohio.
The band played new and old songs and the older audience responded with loud applause and screams of approval after every one. Before Church played “Orion and Dog” solo to begin the encore, he said, “I wasn’t planning on coming up alone, but what the hell.”
Members in the back of the audience filled the aisle to get closer to the stage. The band joined him to finish the encore, which filled the crowd with so much energy that a man started fist pumping and a woman played an imaginary washboard.
With all the audience’s enthusiasm, it seems like Sea Wolf brought Ships of the Sea to a smooth-rocking current. Hopefully, the rest of the Savannah Music Festival is rocking accordingly.
