Seeing Glass Animals in Kansas City after brilliant Chicago show

Human Musical Group Sensations Glass Animals recently hit the road hot on the heels of the release of their fourth studio album, I LOVE YOU SO F***ING MUCH. Back bigger and better than ever, I was lucky enough to catch the band on two stops of the tour — once in Chicago and the next a week later in Kansas City.

Both shows were amazing reminders of how far this band has come.

The supporting bands were different at each show, which was a nice variety for those of us seeing multiple stops on the tour. In Chicago, Kevin Abstract (formerly of Brockhampton) opened a lively set on Northerly Island, running around the amphitheater and really working the crowd. This was contrasted with the low-key, plodding shoegaze rock that was Eyedress — the opening act in Kansas City. Emotional and lofty and full of air, their music had the crowd bopping up and down, but in a much more chill way than the more hip hop-focused support back in Chicago.

The first time I saw Glass Animals was in a sweaty tent on a Thursday night at Bonnaroo back in 2015. I had never heard of the band at that point, but one of the people in my group at the festival wanted to see them and dragged me along. That set remains one of my favorite shows of all time. The GA snowball had just begun to roll back then… Zaba was out and “Gooey” was beginning to gain popularity. I’ll never forget seeing Dave crowd-surf while covering Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” (I was also disappointed that I didn’t get to relive this at the Chicago show).

Ever since then, Glass Animals has been one of my favorite bands.

I made sure to see their tours after both How To Be A Human Being  and Dreamland came out. I can honestly say that on this most recent tour, the band has stepped up both their production and showmanship to the highest level they have ever been. Dave MacFarlane and the rest of the band command the stage, which is set up to resemble the dashboard of a great space ship. Massive TV monitors and a hologram crystal ball — that might as well have been stolen off the USS Enterprise — set the scene as the music takes you on a trip through space, with Dave the captain of the ship. The setlist leans heavily on their new album, making up about half of the show. Crescendoing songs of love and loss blasted out across the amphitheater lawn in Kansas City, courtesy of Dave’s falsetto voice. 

It dawned on me, about halfway through the show, that it felt like I was seeing an entirely different band than when I first saw them almost 10 years ago. Three albums later and a healthy stint of having the most popular song in the world thanks to Dreamland’s “Heat Waves” (which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks straight and is the longest charting song on the Hot 100 of all time), the band has indeed come a long way.

Photography by Sean Rider

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