Glass Animals @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion

Glass Animals with Pumarosa and D.R.A.M.
September 30th, 2016 at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion

Every good concert turns into a dance party. Glass Animals did not disappoint with their How To Be A Human Being tour, which stopped at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion. While the concert itself was amazing, the venue was more than questionable. Boston’s weather can quickly turn ugly, especially towards the end of September, and The Blue Hills Bank Pavilion is an open-air venue – essentially a tent set up over the stage and seats. Unsurprisingly, the concert took place on a cold, rainy, windy right. While the band wasn’t affected by the wind or rain, the audience in the side aisles got drenched and bone-shivering cold. But as a testament to their live show – the weather left a much less lasting impression than the actual music. Few bands can boast of being better live than recorded, but Glass Animals is one of them.

The band brought two opening acts; the first, Pumarosa, was disappointing. Unfortunately, the lead singer’s dancing made her vocals incomprehensible. The guitarist and rest of the band did a spectacular job, but the lead singer distracted the audience from enjoying a beat with her banshee-like vocals. The second was an undoubtable hit; D.R.A.M. rocked the house with his hit singles, Cash Money, Cha Cha, and Broccoli (even though Lil Yachty wasn’t there). Between his songs, he had the audience repeat his mantra: “Do you love your Mama?” “I love my Mama!” “Spread love!” “Spread love!” One of his songs was a sweet ballad, Cute, which put the audience in a feel-good mood. While it was exciting to see someone with as big of a name as D.R.A.M., his set was very short at only 4 songs.

While the majority of the Glass Animals’ setlist came from How To Be a Human Being, there were a few hits which were too popular to pass up playing; Gooey, Black Mambo, Hazey, and Cocoa Hooves. Behind Dave Bayley’s vocals were cactuses and Tetris-like blocks which changed colors throughout the show, occasionally having a disco ball come out during the hits like Gooey and Life Itself. The fan-favorite Gooey was performed towards the end of the show while purple smoke was emitted from the stage, bringing on enthusiastic screams from the audience. An interesting addition to Glass Animals’ repertoire was a cover of Kanye West’s Love Lockdown, a surprising smash. Glass Animals took their sometimes-dreamy music and mixed it with colored smoke to create a fantastic set. The audience wasn’t able to interact with the band as much as in other shows – mostly just screams of joy at recognition of a hit – but there were still moments of unity as we all sang about those peanut butter lies.