The first thing I noticed upon listening to Greg Freeman‘s 2022 album I Looked Out was that he sounds like Jason Molina. Like, quite a bit.

Not just vocally, though his vocal delivery is quite similar, but in the music itself and even lyrically. It’s hard not to see the influence of Molina in a lyric like, “You came as a bird in a dream to my bed/Your talons sharp, your wings dark and splintered/You were born in fall and never left that state/I was born in the middle of winter,” taken off “Souvenir Heart,” the penultimate track on I Looked Out and one of the highlights of his set at The Baby G on Wednesday night. But hey, I’m a Jason Molina fan, so no big complaints on that front.

For his part, Freeman was a fairly soft spoken and amiable frontman, leading his bandmates through an impressive set that featured a mix of tracks off I Looked Out and newer, unreleased numbers, ultimately proving that there’s more to his sound than just simple Molina worship.

Sure, the Molina influence is undeniable, but I also detected hints of Neil Young and Pavement and the inclusion of a saxophonist in his band gave things an almost jazzy vibe at times. “Tower,” another highlight of the set, took things in a different direction with its post-punkish bassline and driving, motorik beat.

The standout track of the night for me though was “Come and Change My Body.” Check out a live perfomance of that track below, recorded last year for Bell the Cat Broadcast.