Glass Animals

Rain-soaked party. I was introduced to this band through Pandora and was immediately hooked. It’s the spastically elastic rhythms and perfect blend of keyboards and guitars. The vocals are the best kind of weird and the lyrics are never boring. All this makes for fantastic listening on record; what’s the live show like? Well, not too much different … in fact, not different enough. It’s true that the frontman, Dave Bayley, has a gift for the stage — he’s a live wire of energy, all exaggerated gestures, with feet constantly in motion — but that only illuminated his bandmates’ lack of the same. No bum notes, no missed cues; just flat in comparison. But those songs, holy shit. “Life Itself” and “Agnes” were standouts … but their small catalog’s so fantastic that any set would have worked. It rained like a motherfucker during this outdoor Red Rocks show — a 90-minute delay mid-set almost sent me packing up early — but the young crowd was waaaaaay into it, partying uninterrupted despite the bad weather, and I’m glad I stuck around ‘til the end. Setlist