By: Ted Tiedemann 

Glass Animals performed to a sold out crowd at the Palace Theater for the first time this past September. As always, they had an elaborate set design adorned with palm trees, pineapples, colored lights, a pineapple disco ball, and the letters GA in large 8-bit font hung above them. The band presented an upbeat, energetic set that got everyone dancing, which is typical at a Glass Animals show. David Bayley, the front man, engaged in his usual bouncy antics, dancing from one side of the stage to the other, singing while standing amongst the crowd, and letting his inner child out on stage. Their performance was no short of incredible; all of the members bring a high tier of musicianship and talent to the table. Joe Seaward is an underrated drummer in the indie rock/pop world and his live performance shows his precise skill and passion he contributes to the show. On the song “Cane Shuga,” he plays a syncopated beat seamlessly with super clean trap hi-hat rhythms, and in a live scenario it’s mesmerizing. Both Drew MacFarlane and Edmund Irwin-Singer handle all of the synths, guitars and samples to create a kind of symphony that’s rooted heavily in hip hop, indie, and culture. 

Unfortunately the show suffered some mixing issues; the midi instruments were too quiet, low and high frequencies were too hot which cut out essential mids. Despite some sound issues, the band persevered and played a high energy show. David Bayley evoked images of Thom Yorke’s wild dancing, and felt loose enough to improvise some falsetto runs on various tracks. Both Drew and Edmund improvised melodic motifs in their most popular songs to add intrigue to the live show. Above all that, what made the show feel so much more intimate was the fact that they had Joe playing drums to the side rather than behind the band. This setup felt more like I got a better sense of each individual member and what they contributed, rather than having the focus always be the singer. Much of their live show consists of a subtle tweak to the formula of having a good live show, and subtle breaking of the rules that make them stand out as an indie band. There is no doubt that Glass Animals are a tight outfit that will definitely last due to their solid live shows.