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This show in Montreal is one of my absolute favorites. Firstly, the mix is extremely clear and balanced. Secondly, the setlist is magnificent.  This show consists of some of my favorites from Immigrance like Even Us, While We’re Young and Xavi as well as my favorite old tune, Flood, which was a lovely surprise considering they played it the previous night. This show also features Montreal’s own Malika Tirolien from Bokanté killing it on Xavi with a vocal solo and playing in unison with an extremely challenging horn melody. Very cool. Track-By-Track Even Us – McQueen starts this one off likeContinue Reading

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This is the early show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada – aka Larnell Lewis’s hometown! The first thing that caught my attention was that three Snarky Puppy stalwarts are not in the lineup for this show.  In addition to the absence of Mike “Maz” Maher (who would join the tour two weeks later), Bobby Sparks and Justin Stanton are absent even though they had performed in Montreal the night before.  The void is filled with violinist Zach Brock, trumpeter Jay Jennings, and Bob “The Savior of Toronto” Lanzetti on guitar.  But more on that later…  Track-By-TrackContinue Reading

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Doug and I are ready to start reviewing shows once again! We plan on covering every show on LiveSnarky.com  from this show on the 5th of September until the Nuremberg show on the 30th of November. This was the second show of the second half of the US tour as the first show in Philly on September 4 was not recorded on audio. However, here’s a partial video from Philly on our YouTube Channel. This New Haven show took place at ‘Toad’s Place”,’ a nightclub with a more casual atmosphere and a particularly rowdy crowd. The pup’s played a variedContinue Reading

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The second show of the night. A completely different setlist, a different atmosphere and some more incredible playing. Both of the Toronto shows are really interesting listens due to hearing how the band manages without having the usual 3 or 2 keyboardists. It’s also a lot of fun hearing how Bob and McQueen divide up their parts to not step on each other’s toes so to speak. It’s also great to have Jay Jennings in the lineup again as he often doesn’t manage to make Snarky’s busy touring schedule. Compared to Maz or Justin, Jay often brings a more bopContinue Reading

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This show in Paris was very special. This was less of a Snarky Puppy show and more of a Karim Ziad and Maalem Hamid El Kasri show. The Gnaouas musicians from Morocco joined the Pup’s a year after their first encounter in June 2018 and played a total of four drastically reworked songs together from the S.P catalogue as well as some favorites from Culcha Vulcha and Immigrance without the Gnaouas musicians. The energy throughout this show was just next level. I haven’t heard a crowd giving so much energy to the band before. This really helps loosen the nervesContinue Reading

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In this bonus review, Snarky Puppy played to a festival crowd at the renowned Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium.  It’s a fairly short set with only eight songs in under ninety minutes, but they still cover a lot of ground in that time.  The solos are significantly shorter due to the time limits of the festival but that doesn’t decrease the funk, swag, or grooviness of this performance.  This is not an officially recorded release so unfortunately, my recording has some quick cuts omitting some of the music.  But it’s still another fine show.     Track-By-Track Tarova – Justin Stanton kicksContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy arrived in France for an outdoor show at the Wolfi Jazz Festival in Wolfisheim, North-East France. This show featured some very energetic, creative and musical playing from everyone and heaps of the Immigrance material. Like the other shows from the Summer Euro tour, Louis Cato’s drumming brings a whole new energy, dynamic and feel to the band so the tunes we’ve all heard time and time again take on a new life in a sense which keeps things extremely interesting from a listening standpoint. This show has one of my absolute favorite versions of GØ in it. Louis’Continue Reading

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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