Frontman of Glass Animals Dave Bayley gets into his performance at the Ogden. Sept. 25, 2017 (Angela Smith/CU Independent)
I am always excited for a concert. Generally, this excitement comes because I have had a ticket to a show for at least a few months and have simply been waiting for the day to come. This case was very different. As a fan, I have been waiting to see the Oxford band Glass Animals for nearly two and a half years. As a photographer, I could not wait to capture the experience they were going to bring. Not once during the night was I disappointed to have waited so long.
I only very recently moved to Colorado, and have never been to the Ogden Theatre. Walking into the venue on Monday night, I was blown away by the beauty of the inside of the venue. Additionally, Glass Animals has an absolutely amazing setup complete with a pineapple disco ball and a large old school looking CRT television with bunny ears and all.
As the show started, Amber Mark, an up and coming singer-songwriter currently based out of New York City took the stage. Her set seemed to work perfectly with getting the crowd ready to enjoy Glass Animals. Mark’s songs are very melodically driven, backed very well by her strong vocals and talented band. Mark’s stage presence was pretty decent with much room for improvement. As an opener for a band with such a large following, she did a decent job keeping the crowd engaged especially considering she is a solo artist without other band members to really feed off of. If nothing else, Mark is an amazing vocalist that I will definitely be keeping up with in the future.
Glass Animals opened their set with “[Premade Sandwiches]” which is the interlude from their most recent album, How to be a Human Being followed with some dancing and the groove infested pop driven “Life Itself.” Glass Animals is known for their energy in live shows, and they truly did live up to their reputation. They had the whole crowd singing along during “Toes” and “Youth,” and as lead singer Dave Bayley climbed up on the TV set he pointed out the fan dressed as a pineapple.
The band claimed that this was the loudest crowd of the tour, which resulted in even more cheers before they exited the stage the first time after playing their most recent single, “Agnes.” For their encore, they covered the Gnarls Barkley hit “Crazy,” doing justice to the classic. “Crazy” was followed by the always energetic and fun to sing along to song “Pork Soda.” If you enjoy bands that bring high energy to the stage, you will not want to miss Glass Animals next time they come around.
Contact CU Independent writer Angela Smith at angela.smith@colorado.edu
