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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 one amazing show. Not only was the setlist outstanding but the overall energy seemed much higher than usual. The two saxophone players, Bob Reynolds and Chris Bullock played some truly epic solos in this show so other saxophone players should love this show. The pups played at the large Minglewood hall in the middle of Memphis which has both a bar section and the larger stage where the pup’s performed. The room was quite boomy acoustically but this didn’t stop the band from tearing up and Nic Hard from making the mix squeaky clean. Track-By-Track Embossed – TheContinue Reading

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This was a very special show at the incredible Kauffman Center for Performing Arts that showcased a more restrained and mature side to the band, but it was also extremely funky which made the longer build-ups all the more worthwhile. Mark Lettieri in particular was on fire this show and he played some truly breathtaking solos. JT’s adaptive and sensitive drumming was brought to the foreground throughout, but also his undeniably tight and precise pocket. Particularly, in some songs he managed to seamlessly push the tempo into oblivion without it coming across as clumsy or forced; this was really amazingContinue Reading

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Another open-air, amphitheater show for the pup’s in a row! This time, the pups headed north to Bellvue near Fort Collins, 90 miles away from the previous show in Morrison to the Mishawaka Amphitheater. Unlike Red Rocks, this stage was quite small and a little cramped. The horns for instance were angled slightly to make the most of the space. The show experienced some rain halfway through the set; this actually added a nice soundscape! The setlist they played was extremely varied and diverse and they managed to squeeze 11 songs into the hour and a half. They played oldContinue 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