Glass Animals Bring the Peanut Butter Vibes to Minneapolis
Photos by Chakong Yang
After a near two month hiatus from live music to focus a little bit more on ultra training, it was finally time for me to get back in the swing of all things concerts. I couldn’t ask for a better return to live music than Glass Animals’ Tour the Earth at one of my favorite local venues, The Armory. I remember when this band’s fourth full length, “I Love You So F***ing Much,” dropped last year and how it slowly became one of the albums of the summer for me, even being the first record I put on for a spin during my first 50 mile race last fall in Washington. There was something really special about having a few of the songs from that album take me to the finish line of that race and I was so excited to be able to catch some of those live for the first time.
Before it was time for Glass Animals, the sole opener of the night Orla Gartland took to the stage. This was the first official night of the tour for Orla Gartland, who would be taking over as the opener for the remainder of the tour. To no one’s surprise at this point, I left my first impression of Orla Gartland to the fate of their live performance. Right on schedule at 8pm, they kicked off their set with “Kiss Ur Face Forever” off of their second full length record "Everybody Needs A Hero.” From the moment Orla Gartland took the stage and came out swinging with their performance, my eyes were glued to the stage. There was something about their natural ability as a performer, the groove of their music, and the immense amount of charisma that drew me in for every song of the short and sweet opening set. Their set was even included a cover of Chappel Roan’s "Redwine Supernova” tucked right into the middle. Even though the crowd seemed to be a little more excited for the headliner of the night, Orla Gartland made a wonderful debut not only to the tour but to the Twin Cities.
Not long after Orla Gartland departed the stage, the house lights dimmed and the one and only Glass Animals took the stage to kick off their set with one of their classics “Life Itself.” It felt like nearly every song in their seltlist was elevated to the next level with the added production; there were incredible visuals on the LED screen behind the band, the lighting was on point and interactive with the music, and the tasteful addition of lasers to a handful of songs really upped the band’s live show. Glass Animals also fully leaned into the cosmic space theme for many elements of their set; from their stage design and the visuals in the background, there were constant moments for the crowd to become fully immersed in their production.
There were no shortage of moments for crowd interaction as well, especially with the high production value and vibey grooves that had the crowd dancing from the opening bars of “Life Itself” all the way to the end of “Heat Waves.” Lead singer Dave Bayley borrowed a fuzzy cowboy hat from one of the fans in the front of the crowd during “Creatures in Heaven,” before climbing down from the stage during “Gooey” to sing part of the song from the crowd near the soundboard.
My only personal disappointment from their set was that the scales were not tipped in favor of more songs from “I Love You So F***ing Much.” This is absolutely a personal bias, but I would have loved to hear more deep cuts from that album (including “Lost in the Ocean, which was played earlier in the tour but not included in the Minneapolis set). Even with that hyper specific, personal preference aside, Glass Animals brought the heat to The Armory, with a set that blew their last performance in the Twin Cities out of the water. The band hinted they would be back as soon as possible, leaving myself and most of the crowd in eager anticipation of their return to Minnesota, hopefully without the three year wait.
