Galactic
Terminal 5
New York, *NY
*February 25

In the 14 years that I’ve been seeing Galactic live, one thing has always held true: they bring the party – which can be helpful when a band is playing possibly the least audience-friendly venue in NYC. The major disadvantages of T5 are an inability to see the stage and an overwhelming accumulation of bass frequencies. While Galactic are no strangers to low end, their tight articulation and well-developed sonic arrangements helped abate the ill effects of the venue’s acoustics (openers Steel Pulse had significantly greater difficulty with this matter). And while they still may have been hard to actually see, sightlines are only of so much concern when the audience is raging hard. New lights and a stage setup modeled after traditional Carnival celebrations, also helped alleviate the performance challenges by transforming the event in to more of a party than a “concert” per se, with the lights in particular evoking the ambience of a voodoo carnival.

The band, augmented by Rebirth trombonist Corey Henry, opened with Ya-Ka-May’s “Cineramascope”, running in to “Hey Na Na” from the brand-new Carnival Electricos, featuring the first of many appearances by Living Colour frontman Corey Glover. To the delight of the audience, the band continued to pepper the set with cuts off the new record, with the Soul Rebels-assisted take on Karate being a particular high-point. There were only a couple of moments during the show where the energy flagged, particularly during “Bongo Joe” and the beginning of “Total Destruction To Your Mind,” however by the guitar solo in “Destruction”, the band, had the crowd whipped back in to a carnival-esque frenzy. As if sensing the resurgence in audience energy, Stanton followed “Destruction” with a rolling drum solo to intro “Ha Di Ka”. The party continued through the end of the set, particularly during the killing cover of “Kashmir” and even through the almost-balladry of set closer “Heart Of Steel”. The band encored with the closing track off Carnivale, “Ash Wednesday Sunrise”, and a powerful, if rhythmically inaccurate tear through the Living Colour classic “Cult Of Personality.” The party atmosphere was strong enough that it carried out in to the streets as the audience spilled out on to the midtown-west streets, almost all seeking to continue the celebration through the rest of the night.