After releasing their debut album ‘ZABA’ back in 2014, Glass Animals seem to be taking the UK by storm with their electronic beats, ethereal vocals and intriguing samples. Their sound has been compared to the likes of Alt-J and Animal Collective however the Glass Animal boys have a sneaky card up their sleeve that other indie-electronic bands don’t seem to have. After listening to their album on repeat, I couldn’t help but envisage what their live show would look like and I must admit that I had imagined something similar to other indie-electronic boy bands which usually involve a lot of closed eyes deep in pensive thought mixed with very mild head bopping, almost in an attempt to cover up a tortured soul, but I couldn’t have been more surprised. Glass Animals front man Dave Bayley is one of the few performers that has really stopped me in my tracks – Bayley kept alternating between playing lead guitar (which actually seemed a little more for show rather than holding much musical substance) and bouncing all around the stage dancing and completely owning the stage. Bayley was commanding, confident, extraordinarily energetic and seemed to be regarded as a ‘sex-god' to the plethora of 14 year old girls who were piled up at the front of the stage (much to their parents’ dismay who consequently were all lined up at the back of the venue) –yet with all of this Bayley didn’t seem to exude a single sliver of arrogance – you could tell that this is his true passion in life – performing.
Their music sounded great live too – different enough to how it sounds on the album, yet still holding the original and beautiful essence that makes Glass Animals’ endearing sound. I must admit though that there seemed to be a universal feeling that the bass was far too loud. My eardrums have taken a lot of beatings over the years and so are far less sensitive than others, however this almost went into another dimension – people were even shouting from the crowd ‘turn the bass down!’ But even though the heavy bass did drown out the more intricate soundscapes so prevalent in Glass Animals’ music – all was repaired by the fantastic performance given by the front man and the extraordinarily positive reaction from the crowd (who were even hailed as ‘the best dancers’ of the tour by Bayley himself)
Glass Animals are the most exciting and surprising act I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in 2015 so far. I know these guys are going to continue to go from strength to strength – so we recommend getting down to a live gig as soon as possible whilst there remains some sort of intimacy.
Their album also is definitely one to check out if you haven’t already – BrightonsFinest.com can’t wait for their next one!
Eva Rose