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After a dynamic performance in Nantes, Snarky Puppy moved on to Toulouse for another  great show at Le Zenith.  This show contains lots of great tunes from the SP repertoire: there are oldies like “Intelligent Design” and “Flood” grouped with newer tunes such as “Bigly Strictness” and “Chonks.” Becca Stevens & Michelle Willis opened the concert.  A bonus video will be linked at the end of this review.   Track-By-Track Beep Box – The concert begins with a sinister synth bassline from Michael League.  The keyboardists add spacey melodic fills, and Zach Brock makes his violin strings tremble.  Chris McQueen (onContinue Reading

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How do you follow up a magnificent, career-defining, Grammy-winning concert at the Royal Albert Hall? If your band is like most other bands, you’d go and take a couple of days off, maybe go sightseeing in London and hit up some English pubs.  True to form (and not to rest on their laurels), Snarky Puppy soldiered on with a high-energy concert at the O2 Apollo in Manchester – their first time at the venue in over two years.  It’s rare to see them perform with more than nine members onstage, and in this show there were eleven! The full instrumentationContinue Reading

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In this concert Snarky Puppy finds its rhythm after Chris McQueen’s departure and Jamison Ross’s arrival.  The audience at De Roma in Antwerp, Belgium is super receptive to the new tunes as well as the standards.  This lineup features an expanded horn section, as well as the rare pairing of Jamison Ross with percussionist Marcelo Woloski.  It seems to me that because of each member’s gigging schedules, Marcelo usually plays with Jason “JT” Thomas and Keita Ogawa gets teamed with Jamison Ross for most Snarky Puppy shows.  But of course, it’s purely by coincidence and they could work equally wellContinue Reading

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Here we go, friends…the last month of the Immigrance tour! Diehard Snarky Puppy fans know that the band’s album We Like It Here was recorded in Utrecht, so the Netherlands hold a special place in our hearts.  The Dutch fans came out in droves to the venue Tivoli Vredenburg for another great show loaded with new tunes – five, to be exact! This is Jamison Ross’s first night with the Pups since October 5, and he kills it with some sensational drumming.  He stays on for a week before Jason “JT” Thomas arrives for the remaining three weeks of touringContinue Reading

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After listening to several recordings of international Snarky Puppy concerts, I’ve noticed that European fans give Snarky Puppy an equal mix of focus and enthusiasm.  They’re not rowdy, nor are they tuned out.  They give the entire band their undivided attention and applaud at the right times, which helps feed the band’s performance.  The Danish crowd at Train is a prime example.  If you want to hear a solid set with mostly new material from Immigrance, check this show out! Here, the dynamic duo of Mark Lettieri and Chris McQueen takes center stage with several blistering guitar solos.   MichaelContinue Reading

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This show took place at the beautiful Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan. This particular room is very lively and more suited towards hosting acoustic and orchestral performances; however, this mix sounds great, and the band is still as high energy as ever. This show features mostly new music and lots of these versions sound quite different from the album versions. Something I thought was cool and didn’t notice until writing this, was that every song was grouped together alphabetically! I wonder if this was intentional. Track-By-Track Even Us – McQueen starts this one off like usual with aContinue Reading

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Sixteen years ago – at the time of the Immigrance tour in 2019 – Michael League and his friends founded Snarky Puppy at the University of North Texas.  On October 5, 2019, the Pups ended the final North American leg of the Immigrance tour at the Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas, so it all came full circle.  For this show, longtime SP stalwarts Mark Lettieri and Shaun Martin sat in with the band.  And if that wasn’t enough, Jason “JT” Thomas and Robert “Sput” Searight hopped onstage to play with Jamison Ross & Keita Ogawa on “Tio Macaco.”  JT isContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy always gets a positive reception in Florida, and this audience at the Plaza in Orlando is truly dynamite! Maybe it’s the scores of musicians and music lovers based in Florida…or maybe it’s the fact that Bob Reynolds and Jamison Ross are both from Jacksonville.  Who knows? This show also has TWO special guest musicians that are polar opposites, but amazingly gifted in their own ways.  Every single band member kills it in this show, but one of my favorite solos of the night belongs to one of the guest musicians.  Read on to find out more! House ofContinue Reading

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While this Snarky Puppy concert clocks in at under 90 minutes, the quality of the band’s performance is exceptional.  This was the band’s first time in Charleston, and they were ready to deliver a killer show at the Music Farm.  This was also Jamison Ross’s first night as the touring drummer since May…with the exception of the Tokyo Jazz Festival in early September! Having Bob Reynolds on tenor saxophone really boosts the horn section, and the percussive duo of Keita Ogawa & Jamison Ross is second to none.  As usual, Michael League does a stellar job of holding everything together. Continue Reading

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Earth to Bobby Sparks…earth to Bill Laurance…earth to Shaun Martin! Where are these dudes? Well, this is going to be a very different Snarky Puppy show.  I watched the video of the full concert (thanks again to Jake!) and was amazed by how well the eight-man ensemble handled the absence of their keyboardists.  The horns take on more responsibilities in this show, and so does Justin Stanton, who is the lone keyboardist tonight.  And if anybody needs proof of Justin’s badassery, watch him switch between five different keyboards for ninety minutes without breaking a sweat.  You’ll thank me later.  TheContinue Reading