Snarky Puppy’s Somni tour kicked off Wednesday, April 8th, at The Eastern in Atlanta! It was a full circle moment for me, starting with the Somni recording sessions in Utrecht, Netherlands, in January 2025; the release of the album in November 2025; and me naming it my Album of the Year for 2025 (link to review)!
Now, they’re in the midst of the U.S. tour—I attended the first four in Atlanta, Charleston, Durham, and Charlotte and will be at 7 of the first 14, with Red Bank, Philly, and Nashville coming up later this month.
Here are my overall observations from the first four shows. First, The Nth Power is opening theater shows (not festivals), and they are soulful and funky and great to watch. They’re now on GroundUP Music and have a new album coming out on May 1. Nikki Glaspie is their drummer and now also one of the touring drummers with Snarky Puppy so you know she’s got chops. Nick Cassarino (guitar and vocals) and Nate Edgar round out the trio and are a dynamic team with a very special chemistry. I’ll have some video upcoming to show off their talent.
The tour is going to be very different than past tours in that it’s really focused on the Somni album. In fact, at each of the first three shows, seven of the eight album tracks were played (Between Worlds was omitted), albeit in a different order than the album but the same order each night. After the Somni tracks came “The Hits”– a selected one or two from among Shofukan, Lingus and What About Me?
The audience really enjoyed and was attentive to the new tracks. For people that weren’t familiar with the album, they sounded fresh, and they wouldn’t recognize that a whole orchestra wasn’t included. That is, the tunes stand up very well on their own, and as Michael League has said, they were written to be played with or without the orchestra. For those that are very familiar with the Metropole Orkest and the album versions, it’s interesting, for example, to hear string parts played by the horns or synths and the marimbas from As You Are But Not As You Were plucked by Zach Brock on violin.
Chimera comes across extremely strong, and while it seems like an outlier on the album due to its dark, nightmarish overtones, it feels very powerful and dramatic live, especially with the great lighting effects at the show from Clare McEnerney. The main lighting is two arcs of phases of the moon. It actually took me until the Durham show to recognize this, where they were overlaid on top of a field of stars.
The show evolves each night as the band gets more comfortable with each tune. The audiences are always particularly attentive at Snarky Puppy shows, and this tour continues in that tradition. The merch has been expanded with a great tour tee shirt and poster and even Snarky Puppy socks! Overall, the vibe at each show can be a little different depending on the venue and the locale. Here are some of my impressions and some special media clips from each show.
The Eastern, Atlanta, April 8th
The Eastern set was the first Atlanta show in 3 years, and it was killer. The venue is mid-sized with a capacity of around 2,100, with the main floor as standing general admission and the upper level as partially seated in the mezzanine where I was. I had the opportunity to video this epic event, and you can preview It Stays With You in the video on the right—the band lineup is also noted in the video. It was close to sold out, and there were a lot of long-term, diehard fans in attendance. The set opened with Waves Upon Waves, and immediately the crowd was into it. During Drift, a beautiful hypnotizing tune, Bobby Sparks actually teased the main lyric from One Nation Under A Groove which went completely unnoticed by me until I relistened to it on my drive up to Charleston (where he did it again). “The Hits” this started with Shofukan as the set finale. After the audience chant, the band quoted a tune that sounded so familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure it out — when I got up to Charleston, Chris Bullock confirmed that it was Nautilus (1974) by Bob James. The encore was What About Me? with the special guest soloist Kebbi Williams on sax!
Charleston Music Hall, Charleston, April 9th
The Charleston set was identical to that of Atlanta, except the Hit was Lingus! And the solo was played by the amazingly talented Nate Werth on percussion, and of course he crushed it—see the Instagram post video for proof! The doors opened a bit late due to some technical issues, but you’d never know it by the performance. This conveniently located venue is 100 years old and was a great place to celebrate my 100th Snarky Puppy show. At this point, I really appreciate seated shows to sit back and enjoy the music, and I was seated second row center with an unobstructed view.
Carolina Theater, Durham, April 10th
Durham was another seated show in the modern and elegant Carolina Theater. I was seated in the fourth row, center. It was at this show that I first noticed the moon phases in the main lights and the stars in the background! Not surprisingly, surrounded by a lot of people just getting hip to Snarky Puppy. Many were tipped off by a relative and had only listened to Somni or some other recent albums. Yet, the excitement was palpable, and once the music started, I could tell that everyone was sucked into the vortex. As you can tell from the picture below, the only lineup change was that Chris McQueen popped in on guitar, while Bob Lanzetti remained rooted in his adopted hometown, Charleston. The hits in this case were What About Me? and a great rendition of Shofukan. As usual, Michael League and friends were indefatigably out at the merch table greeting fans and signing stuff!
The Amp Ballantyne, Charlotte, April 11th
This was a festival set as part of The Spring Mix in Charlotte. It was absolutely one of the best single-day festival lineups for me in recent memory—check it out in the picture. Snarky Puppy came on at dusk and finished out with a flourish in the dark. The crowd was really amped up (couldn’t help the pun) and the set list was a mix of Somni + Hits: Flood>Chimera>Xavi>Only Here>Recurrent>Shofukan>Lingus with special guest Karen Briggs on violin. 🔥 Flood is a great opener for crowds that may not be totally familiar with the band. Chimera was simply stunning. But they did indeed save the best for last, bringing out Karen Briggs on violin for the Lingus solo, and she crushed it! I remember seeing Karen for the first time in the 90s when she was touring with Yanni, and she’s amazing as always! Looking forward to seeing some video pop up in the future.
