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After a well-received set at the Vienna Jazz Festival, Snarky Puppy continued on their tour throughout Europe.  They stopped in Lviv, Ukraine for the first time and played a great show at the Leopolis Jazz Festival.  This setlist draws on a wider variety of tunes from the Snarky Puppy catalog, so there’s less material from Immigrance.  Nonetheless, the energy is high and the music is insanely good.  A bonus YouTube video is linked at the end of this review.  Track-By-Track Embossed – Louis Cato and Marcelo Woloski light the wick with an intense opening groove. Bob Lanzetti makes his entranceContinue Reading

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If you are a regular reader of the FunkCity.net articles, the previous Snarky Puppy concert review documented an absolutely insane show in Belgrade, Serbia.  It was off the wall…the fans were screaming like banshees, the solos were stretched like rubber bands, and Shaun Martin went completely bananas.  After that high-octane extravaganza, Snarky Puppy went to Austria for the Vienna Jazz Festival.  This performance and the audience are much more subdued, but the musicianship is still top-notch.     Track-By-Track Even Us – Bob Lanzetti opens the show with the drawn-out guitar chords in the key of A minor. Shaun Martin delicately playsContinue Reading

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Holy. Smokes. I knew that Snarky Puppy has a large fan base outside of America, but nothing prepared me for the rabid energy of this show. The Pups played their first-ever Serbian concert at an outdoor tennis court (Kalemegdan Teniski Tereni) that doubles as a concert venue. Even before the band plays a single note, the fans are roaring for them. And once the music starts, it’s an absolute thrill from start to finish. This audience is 100 percent ready to party – they barely stop cheering or clapping for the whole two-hour show. One notable aspect of Snarky Puppy’sContinue Reading

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The final show of the first American leg of Snarky Puppy’s Immigrance tour was held at Brooklyn Steel, an old warehouse that was converted into a concert venue.  A lot of the band members were living in New York at the time, so it was essentially a backyard show! The 1,500-capacity audience cheers, hollers, and claps excitedly throughout…what else would one expect from a New York crowd? The banter is just as entertaining as the music at times – Michael says some funny things about Milwaukee, New Zealand, and the fans’ expectations of a typical Snarky Puppy show.  Longtime Snarky PuppyContinue Reading

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At the penultimate stop of the first U.S. leg of the Immigrance tour, Snarky Puppy played to a large, receptive crowd at The Anthem in the nation’s capital.  Michael League revealed that he grew up in the area (Fairfax County, to be exact), so this evening’s concert meant a lot to him.  A special guest musician also comes out for “Xavi” towards the end of the set…who will it be?  Track-By-Track Kite – The horns kick off the evening with their lush opening statement, backed by Justin Stanton on Fender Rhodes.  Mike “Maz” Maher’s trumpet sounds lovely as usual, and ChrisContinue Reading

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This is one of my favorite shows from the Immigrance tour! The whole band is on fire, and the Pisgah Brewery audience is psyched to be at the show.  I watched the live video on YouTube (see video from FunkCity.net at end) and it was incredible.  Watching the interaction between the band members was simply magical.  I really got a sense of how all ten minds work as one and how the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts.   Track-By-Track Palermo – To be honest, this track is a GREAT show opener…I wish the band openedContinue Reading

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This was a wonderful show at a wonderful venue! Red Rocks is an open-air amphitheater built into a giant rock structure in Colorado, with seating for over 9,500 people.  The sound, the views, the opportunity to engage with thousands of spectators…no wonder Michael League says that it’s his favorite venue.  Snarky Puppy performed as part of a special event with Michael Franti & Spearhead as headliners.  Despite being a short set, the Pups still packed nine songs into their allotted time by leaving out extended soloist features (e.g. no percussion solo to close “Tarova”) and truncating the main solo sectionsContinue Reading

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After playing in Las Vegas, Snarky Puppy marched on to Salt Lake City for the first time ever. Just like the previous concert, this set draws from nearly ten years’ worth of material. Although the Commonwealth Room is a medium-sized venue (to the tune of 600 people), the crowd roars like there are 5,000 fans in attendance. The jubilant fans contribute to the energetic vibe of this show…and they also TOTALLY nail the polyrhythmic clapping on “Xavi.” At times, I found myself just as entertained by the audience as I was by the music…now that’s really saying something! Track-By-Track EmbossedContinue Reading

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Las Vegas…where casinos, fine dining, nightclubs, and amazing live music coexist harmoniously. In other words, an ideal place for a Snarky Puppy show. At the Brooklyn Bowl, Michael League mentions that this is their first-ever show in Las Vegas (and probably not their last). As a result, the setlist draws from their entire catalog with less emphasis on the new Immigrance material. For the June shows, Marcelo Woloski played percussion since Nate Werth left after the Orpheum show on May 31. Thus, “Palermo” and “Bardis” were added to the repertoire. Bob Reynolds and Zach Brock also stayed for the remainderContinue Reading

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 This is a remarkable show for two reasons. First, all five Snarky Puppy horn players are present and accounted for: Chris, Maz, Justin, Jay, and Bob! This intensifies the horn line’s sound, especially on tunes like “Embossed,” “Bad Kids to the Back,” and “Tio Macaco.” Second, four special guests appear. That’s right: FOUR. In total, fifteen musicians performed onstage at the Orpheum Theatre, not including Roosevelt Collier and his band as the opening act. Other than the occasional featured duo or ensemble (Metropole Orkest, Väsen, Dafjen Music), there aren’t many times where the number of musicians in a Snarky PuppyContinue Reading