This Sleepy Hollow, New York quintet plays music that harks back to the idealistic, catchy folk rock of the 1960s and 1970s. But they're not a nostalgia act. "Instead of rehashing the old stuff, we went back to the well," says lead singer Joziah Longo. Almost anything (think purple pancakes) can happen at a Gandalf show, and usually does. The band cites influences as diverse as Hank Williams, Dylan, Bowie, Incredible String Band and early Pink Floyd, and Joziah's background growing up among Philadelphia's Mummers' parades may have a little (or a lot) to do with the pure theatrical appeal of the Slambovian universe as well. This is a show that's fun, mind-expanding, and irresistibly melodic, all at the same time. The Circus comes to Michigan with their latest album, "The Grand Slambovians," which they call "a more extreme dose of what we've always been—a country prison music meets British Invasion type of thing." And Joziah Longo is the composer behind the recent Broadway musical "Aesop's Fables."
