The Allah-Lahs play Bayboro Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida on Oct. 10, 2025.
Credit: Denis Morecraft / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
For local fans and followers of Los Angeles-based dreamy psychedelic rock band The Allah-Las, the group’s highly-anticipated first visit to the Tampa Bay area was more than worth the wait. The four-piece has been together since 2008, with a discography dating back to its exquisite 2012 self-titled debut record.
Last Friday, The Allah-Lahs finally made it to a local stage and wowed the tightly-packed audience gathered at St. Petersburg’s Bayboro Brewing to hear the band’s finely-crafted blend of jangly surf-influenced psych-pop.
Taking the small stage, which was adorned with small projection screens, the band drew a hearty response as the members made their way to their designated spots. Images of beach shells and sand-filled vistas displayed on the screens set the perfect vibe for the sounds the band was about to provide.
Kicking off its 75-minute set with “Sacred Sands,” one of the many standout tracks from its first album, the band, and especially lead singer and guitarist Miles Michaud, fell right into its groove and stayed locked into it for the duration of the night. Lead guitarist and band co-founder Pedrum Siadatian added plenty of color and warmth to the music and shone on the majority of the night’s selections.
For its performance of “Tell Me (What’s on Your Mind),” the group proudly and brilliantly showed off its many influences, as flashes of the great British blues/psych band The Yardbirds weaved in and out of the scintillating performance.
One of the night’s many standouts came on the band’s take on “200 South La Brea,” a tune from the group’s 2016 album Calico Review. This time, Siadatian’s slide guitar work helped elevate the tone of the performance and did a great deal to showcase the band’s versatility and depth.
As all four members took turns singing lead vocals on their designated songs throughout the night, the band again found ways to more than prove their worth and made this, the first time many in the crowd had managed to see them live, a more than memorable experience.
Some hiccups occurred, as in when Michaud experienced monitor issues, or when bassist Spencer Dunham discovered that the air conditioning was at a more comfortable level on the opposite side of the stage from where he was planted, but, in retrospect, those were minor setbacks for an otherwise stellar night of gauzy, beach-influenced music.
A well-deserved encore, and a performance of “Catamaran,” one of the band’s better-known songs, brought the night to an end and no doubt made those who’d come to experience The Allah-Las live walk out as more ardent fans than they were when coming in the door.
Here’s to hoping this outstanding band comes back to grace another local stage in the near future.
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This article appears in Oct. 9-15, 2025.
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