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Tour Dates
07/17 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
07/20 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room 07/21 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE 07/22 – Garrettsville, OH – Funk ‘N Flow 2022 † 07/23 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore 07/24 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s 07/27 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom 07/28 – Boston, MA – The Roadrunner Boston 07/29 – Washington, DC – Echostage 07/30 – Brooklyn, NY – Rowdytown 08/22 – Long Pond, PA - Elements Music Festival † 09/23 – Morrison, CO – Rowdytown X 09/24 – Morrison, CO – Rowdytown X 10/7-10/9 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits † 10/14-10/16 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits † 10/27-10/30 – Live Oak, FL – Suwanee Hulaween † * † FESTIVAL APPEARANCE * with NGHTMRE as GIGANTIC NGHTMRE Read More
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The Fillmore in Minneapolis’ North Loop in the shadows of Target Field is an impressive music venue, like a compressed orchestra hall with all seats removed from the main floor. Bracing the expansive dance floor are two full length bars. And behind the bottles of Grey Goose and Tanqueray, two psychedelic paintings with Eve on one side holding an apple and on the other, Adam with long flowing hair like he is in some 80’s hair band video or simply walking through a wind tunnel.
Big Gigantic was to eventually fill the cavernous space. But first Covex (Brendan Bell) took the stage to warm up the gathering crowd with songs like “Younger” and “I Won’t Run Away”.
Wearing a black T-Shirt with the slogan SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PLANET there was definitely a nature theme to the videos playing behind him. “Jealousy” was filled with cherry blossoms. “Younger” started off with neon fireflies and expanded into natural vistas with mountain ranges and endless horizons.
Young Franco (Joseph Da Rin De Barbera) a DJ from Brisbane Australia took the stage to keep the party going, mixing songs with an eclectic mix of musicians from Bruno Mars, Ung Bae and Dua Lipa to more old school bands like Chicago and ABBA. Barbera kept the crowd engaged and dancing as the music ebbed and flowed, building to a crescendo where music, lights, hands and hips all moved as one.
As a nod to the Minnesota Twins home being on the same block, INZO (Mike Inzano) took the stage sporting a baseball cap and jersey much like the Rockies uniform in his home state of Colorado. (He even had his name stitched on the back.)
Right at the start he had the crowd with a full on attack. His style of electronica is often atmospheric with songs like “Angst”, “I’m Dreaming” and “Awaken”, but this set was more muscular as if he was launching sound bombs into an ever-ecstatic crowd. Heavy beats, over-layering sound effects, distortion – at times it felt like you were in the middle of an arcade video game, a powerfully funky one where all you wanted to do was dance.
Inzano dialed it back when he asked the crowd to indulge him with a mellower offering in “Naked”. And he finished his set with a remix of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
Then Big Gigantic (Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken) took the stage. Like INZO, they also sported baseball uniforms (names also on the back) but these uniforms were black and white like the ones worn by the Chicago White Sox. But instead of SOX in serif flourish it was BG.
photo courtesy of Big Gigantic |
Everything about Big Gigantic’s set was impressive. The music, the videos, the lights, the lasers, over an hour and a half of music and not once did they stop or slow down: Salken on drums, standing up, repeatedly, to acknowledge the crowd. Lalli on keyboards, saxophone and mixer, yet constantly moving around the stage like a combination maître d' at a high end restaurant/guy you see on the tarmac waving jumbo jets to their proper gates.
The show was a pure shot of adrenaline as they played fan favorites like “Friends”, “Future’s All I See” and “All of Me”. They also featured songs from their latest album Brighter Future 2 like “Open Your Mind” “Keep on Rising” and “Free”.
During “I Can Feel It” the video screen showed a multi-colored neon astronaut being hurled through space. I thought it interesting to have an astronaut between two murals of biblical characters. What it meant, I don’t know. But I’d like to think the astronaut was dancing.
| dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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