Seattle – Toro Y Moi played Showbox at the Market to a very dance-happy crowd. When we caught Toro y Moi in Brooklyn this summer, our New York writer, Kelly Knapp, astutely summed up his sound as “A voice like velvet with beats that make you dance hard” and, yes, dance hard is what people did. The crowd gave just as much energy to the night as the music did.  Toro y Moi, the solo project of Chaz Bundick, has been known for his live performance and has appeared on many “must-see artists” lists; this live fame might not come from his performance itself but what his music is like live.

Musically, Bundick’s show is very memorable. His performance, however, is not. He pretty much just stayed still and didn’t break the momentum of his music. He made no effort at connecting with or engaging the audience. At first, his still silhouette was somewhat demoralizing but his commitment to the act revealed the strength in his music. His behavior exuded a confidence in his music that’s pretty warranted.  He allowed the music to speak for itself and didn’t interrupt the flow of the evening with his own personality.

This style worked very well with Toro Y Moi’s music. There are some synthetic intricacies in Bundick’s music brought forward in the live setting that might easily be overlooked on his albums. His music, which is characteristically complex and somewhat pop-heavy, came out as more dissonant and songs would regularly fall into artful and composed disarray. Bundick’s flexibility during the set and during these digressions revealed the true nature of his talent. He has a knack for knowing how his sounds will work together and can do it on the fly.

The jams were impressive, but his “hit” songs were obviously what got the crowd going throughout the night. Having released his third album Anything In Return earlier this year, a fair chunk of his set was reserved for songs from that LP. This, however, is not his Anything In Return tour so the show wasn’t exclusively made to promote the album, which means we got to hear some of his older work as well. “New Beat” is the classic favorite, but the newer “Say That” might have been the highlight of the night based on the crowd’s eager reaction.

Toro y Moi is concluding his US tour with only a few shows left before heading to Australia and New Zealand; check out future tour dates here.

Photo By Emily Zorn