Brooklyn-born indie pop band Snowmine lit up Chronic Town last night as part of its recent national tour.
The heavily reverberated five-piece has been touring all over the U.S., making stops in Chicago, Boston and this summer, the South by Southwest music festival.
They have independently released one album called “Laminate Pet Animal” and two singles, all of which are available online.
Snowmine brought an interesting sound to Penn State, combining dream sequence riffs and vocals with a mystifying light show.
The band’s music can be best described as ambient psych rock, according to singer and synth player Grayson Sanders in an interview.
“We’re very textural,” said Sanders. “We use traditional instruments in non-traditional ways.”
Tribal beats support swirling synth and guitar effects while drummer Alex Beckmann compounds his meaty acoustic drum kit with an electronic drum pad.
The band focuses on creating environments for the listener to bathe in Sanders said.
The band stopped by downtown State College due to high demand on their last tour, Sanders said.
“We’ve had a lot of luck in Pennsylvania,” Sanders said. “We seem to have a very supportive fan base here.”
Students and smoke filled Chronic Town in preparation for the show, but State College residents were not the only concert goers attending.
“We came out from Buffalo,” foreign fan, Gatlin Walters said. “We drove four hours to get here. Tons of snow.”
Snowmine plans to continue touring through the summer, playing at festivals and venues all over America, guitarist and backup vocalist Calvin Pia said.
“We have a tour in the books for March,” Pia said. “That’s our next benchmark.”
The group has not released music since May of 2012, but it hopes to release more in the upcoming months, Pia said.
“We have our second full-length album already accomplished,” Pia said. “We just need to find the right home for it.”
Snowmine heads back home to Brooklyn after tomorrow night’s show in Boston.
The band urges listeners to look out for new material in 2013, including a live video to be released this week Sanders said.
