Athens, GA is steadily gaining more attention for their live music scene, as bands from their local music repertoire crank out some killer musicians that tend to gain traction outside of the music city. Saturn Valley, known for their cosmic jams and tendency towards prog-rock, is no exception. With the upcoming release of their second studio album in Fall 2015, the band decided a live compilation was in order to showcase their jam sequences and set formations.
“Alive in the Georgia Theater” does that and more, with its seven track set list featuring their Georgia Theater set list from February. It is clear in this live album that the band shines live, as with most improvisation bands. They bring the energy that engages the audience, with their unique rock sound and their spacey jams. Perhaps the best part of this album is the controlled spontaneity; one minute you will be listening to a jazzy instrumental collaboration, the next a synth-pop explosion.
Saturn Valley’s signature track from their first album, “Odysseus,” was even voted into Athens’ annual local music festival compilation album by thousands of UGA students, “Athfest 2015”. However, the live album also features some promising new tracks from their upcoming second studio album, “Cartographer.” If “Luna Latina,” “Bruise,” and “Captain Fiki” are any indication of the album to come, I’d say these guys are going to be pretty set.
“Alive at the Georgia Theater” is available on iTunes and Spotify, so give the band a listen! They won’t disappoint.
Margot is currently a rising senior at the University of Georgia in Athens where she is pursuing a degree in English, and eventually hopes to work as a writer in business or journalism. As you can probably guess due to her major, Margot loves to read all the books she can get her hands on. She enjoys enthusiastically discussing with anyone who will listen (usually just her dog) about her love/writer's envy for Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell. **CAUTION: wine makes this worse. She also enjoys scouring record shops to find all her favorite oldies band’s records, with “Eat A Peach” by the Allman Brothers and Paul Simon’s self-titled album being her most triumphant finds. Although her favorite bands are mostly disbanded or too old to play, she still enjoys seeing the live shows of contemporary bands and Athens is definitely the place to be for that.