BadBadNotGood Live at MTelus in Montreal 27/3/2018

By: Sun Noor

The Toronto-based instrumental jazz collective, BadBadNotGood kicked off the highly anticipated Canadian leg of their continued North American tour last night in Montreal in support of their latest record, IV. The band’s itinerary consists of two sold-out hometown dates at the Danforth Music Hall as well as a few shows in the Canadian West Coast, including a series of dates for British Columbia.

Brooklyn’s Standing on Corner supported the jazz quartet during the first few dates, playing mostly songs off of their newest mixtape entitled Red Burns. Similar to some of their previous works, the record undoubtedly captures the sentiment of frustration towards the current social and political climate of the United States in the eyes of a person of colour, which is quite the relatable narrative. The group came together in 2014 and mainly consists of frontman Gio Escobar, who initially built this project as a solo act. Their music mainly consists of influences from hip hop and soul but also contains elements of jazz and plenty of distortion.

Despite the fact that they just toured an extensive North American tour that dates back to 2016 and playing Osheaga in August, fans still appeared eager, lining up along the venue hours before the band was due to take the stage. Since their most recent release, the four-piece appeared on several tracks in collaboration with artists such as Kaytranada, Daniel Caesar and Kali Uchis. As well, the band is no stranger to performing with other artists throughout their set. Nonetheless, they opted out of that this time, playing an hour and thirty-minute instrumental set that still captivated fans who payed attention to every detail of the live versions of their favourite tunes. In fact, the crowed began to mosh towards the final songs leading to the encore as well as the better known tracks from records such as the debut and III. What else could have been expected when in the presence of prodigies playing smooth and sultry jazz music? I honestly could not have thought of a better way to spend a Tuesday night.

Click here to purchase tickets for any of the upcoming BadBadNotGood shows.