And now for something completely different…Music! I’m ashamed to say that it’s been quite a while since I’ve ventured out to an auditorium for a live show. With all the mask and vaccination b.s. I’ve just avoided the entire scene. However, as things have somewhat normalized (for now) I recently took advantage of the ability to go see Snarky Puppy at Duke Energy Center. They certainly didn’t disappoint and hats off to the venue for making it super easy and enjoyable to see one of our favorite bands.

So let me get this out of the way first–this was not one of their best shows. Frankly, it really didn’t matter to me as any Snarky Puppy is better than 90% of other live music alternatives out there. Being a musician just makes me more hyper-critical, fortunately or unfortunately. I would venture to guess a few things about the performance: a) they haven’t been getting as many reps over the last couple years due to the evil Covid; b) they were performing quite a diverse set list of older material in advance of their new album (which they just finished and is being debuted at the GroundUp festival next weekend in Miami); c) most of their material is difficult to perform as it is, without any extraneous issues!

Honestly, it’s nice to see a chink in the armor every now and then. It’s kind of like watching Tiger Woods duff an easy chip shot–it doesn’t happen that often, but it shows that at the end of the day, even the pros are human. I want to re-iterate that the material is not easy to perform. I’ve always wondered how “out loud” (even if only in the mind) those guys are counting with all the syncopation and differing time signatures. I’ve taken a stab at a few of their joints over the years–I can tell you that the compositions are both beautifully written/arranged and extremely complex. Michael League is a hell of a musician and his virtuosity extends far beyond just the bass. I found myself counting often! Material like this requires a lot of practice and a lot of reps in-between performances to make it go off without a hitch, so it is never surprising to hear a glitch every now and then. However, those glitches are few and far between with these guys, if you ever hear any!

As mentioned earlier, the set list was quite diverse. They meandered through at least five of their albums by my count. The opener, Even Us (Immigrance), was kind of strange in that it was so down tempo. In fact, the start of the show had a real down tempo kind of vibe too it. Mike said something about the room telling him what to play, so maybe the auditorium was giving off the cozy by the fire vibes? They followed up with a tune I had never heard performed before–Intelligent Design (The World is Getting Smaller). I did listen to it while catching up on a few of their more recent shows and it stood out as one I don’t recall hearing that often. This song (from 2007) has a sublime drum ‘n’ bass undertone and an awesome chord progression, all done at ~ 160-170 bpm–it’s a real burner! It also had a really cool call and response drum and percussion solo in the middle. They ventured back into the Immigrance album a couple more times with While We’re Young and Bad Kids to the Back. Again, they brought the down tempo with the former. However, the latter is where things started to really open up and the energy began to flow. “Bad Kids” is one of my favorite joints off of Immigrance. It’s very tight, syncopated and sounds like a nu-school Tower of Power thing–very cool and the crowd loved it.

From there they went back in time about ten years to the GroundUp album with Young Stuff. This is a track that contains one of Mike League’s very rare bass solos. It’s always fun to watch him solo because he is so thoughtful in the notes and riffs that he chooses. Although different every time, this particular soliloquoy was pretty jammin’ and perhaps more percussive than some of his other noodling. G0 (the “0” is supposed to be zero, I think) from the Culcha Vulcha album was up next. This song has a nice afrobeat groove to it and plenty of syncopation between the rhythm section and horns. It was a hit with the crowd for sure and the seamless segue into Thing of Gold (GroundUp) shows that even a non-perfect performance can have its perfect moments. Thing of Gold is just such a happy song and even got the crowd singing the melody line that Shaun plays. The Shaun Martin moog solo at the end was epic–flawless and amazing as always.

They closed the show with What About Me? (We Like It Here) and the accompanying drum solo/outro was insane, complete with Shaun cameo-ing the Mario Bros. theme in the middle! The song’s riff itself (which took me more than a second to figure out the timing and signature) is always a classic. They have been performing this one slowed down at first and then doing the whole accelerando thing into the regular tempo. I have to say that the Bob solo in the middle, while cool, left me wanting a little more but this song is really all about the drum solo anyways. Next time you see the guys, make sure to keep count of the riff underneath it all as the drummer plays over, under, sideways and then some on top of the beat. Pure genius. No surprise that the encore was Shofukan (We Like it Here). The sing along thing has gotten so popular over the years; I think this is probably their most recognizable song. I even heard people outside the show afterwards singing the line, so you know it’s catchy.

All in all it was a shorter show, I think they played for about 90+ minutes. Honestly though, for a musician an 8:30-10pm gig is kind of like heaven, so I can appreciate getting in, getting out and then getting on with life–I just wished they would have played longer! Being a guitarist, I was a little bummed that Mark wasn’t there to accompany Bob (on guitar). Although Bob is really a great player, I prefer Mark’s fire and frenzy to Bob’s playing. J.T. on drums was a treat–this guy is a monster as always. I also love when they bring Zach Brock (violin) out on tour with them. Not every album features violin, but I think the violin works so well with Bob’s cool slide guitar sounds. It was interesting to see both Shaun Martin and Bobby Sparks on keyboards (in addition to Justin Stanton). Generally I’ve seen one or the other. In this case, Bobby was doing double time between the B3 and what I like to call the “Whammy Bar Keyboard” as Shaun was on the Moog per usual. Mike Maher (“Maz”) and Jay Bollock (the hometown hero) rounded out the horn section on trumpet/flugelhorn and saxophone, respectively. Finally, Nate Werth was killing it (as always) on percussion with his creative flair and dynamic hits.

Fun Show! Glad to see these guys still bringing it, post Covid. I hope to see them again soon! For myself, I will be venturing out to a few more shows in the next few months, so stay tuned!