Curiosity and Toro Y Moi Win Thursday Night

I'm not typically one to give in to peer pressure. I'm the type of person who truly dances to the beat of my drum and doesn't care much about what others think about it. That being said, if I see a band name enough or a name gets too big to ignore, I will give in and check it out. That's one of the many reasons I ended up at First Avenue on Thursday night for the Toro y Moi show. I have seen their name repeatedly but have never taken the time to check it out. This time, the chatter throughout the scene about this show was a bit too loud for me to ignore, so instead of going to the punk show that would have probably been a bit more up my alley, I packed up my computer and camera and made my way to First Avenue.

Although it quickly became apparent that this show would be a bit out of left field compared to my typical shows, I was quickly enamored by the opening act, Nourished By Time. This Baltimore-based act has a sound all of its own. It's a deep, dark, and ominous sound but, at times, absolutely makes you want to dance like a complete fool. Bridging the gaps between everything from new wave to R&B and all the way to something a bit more rock, Nourished By Time was an oddball on stage, but I loved that. From their dance moves to just the overall performance, there was a quirkiness to this opening set that could not be ignored. There was also this odd tangibility to their set. It was as if you could feel the textures that were coming through the speakers throughout the set. This would remain a constant throughout the night with the beautiful artistry and magic that the packed audience at First Avenue was about to be treated to, but there was something about the way it came off during Nourished By Time's set that just hit a little harder. This opener is definitely not a commercial kind of act but they are a kind of act that is absolutely deserving of your attention and one that instantly won me over.

I feel like the hype was just as significant for the night's second act as it was for the headliner. Panda Bear is also known as Noah Lennox, who is also a co-founder of Animal Collective. Did you follow that? Basically, Animal Collective is Noah Lennox; Noah Lennox is Panda Bear; Panda Bear was playing the First Avenue mainroom on Thursday night. I'll be honest; I had no clue that's who this was until a buddy let it slip at a show earlier this week, but I was so excited to see what this brilliant musician has been up to since things seemed to have calmed down on the Animal Collective front.

There are definitely some similarities between the sound of Animal Collective and Panda Bear, but there are also things about them that keep them completely separated in a way. The sounds the audience was given on Thursday night seemed to be a bit more indie rock forward but with an obvious experimental and artsy feeling behind them. I was getting a strong Vampire Weekend sound but without Vampire Weekend's signature surf-rock jangle, or maybe it was Vampire Weekend's sound with a bit more of a jangle? Honestly, I was confused as I listened to the tones and sounds of Panda Bear, but I loved it. Like the opening act, a lush sense of texture floated through the air during the eleven-song set that gave Panda Bear's time on stage this sense of sensory overload. It was perfect, and even though I felt that there was so much to sonically feel, there was also so much to quickly get lost in as the sound of this band wrapped around you, like the smell of your favorite candle and the weight of your favorite blanket.

I don't know what I expected from the headlining act Toro y Moi, but what I got was not what I had in mind. As mentioned, I knew nothing about this act walking into this show other than the fact that I have seen the name time and time again. If you had said the name Chaz Bear to me before writing this article, I wouldn't have a clue who you are talking about, but now, after seeing Toro y Moi, I want to learn everything I can about Chaz Bear, aka Toro, aka Toro y Moi. There was just so much organic creativity flowing from the stage throughout Toro y Moi's set that, although the sound was a bit foreign to me and a bit more dance club leaning than I tend to go for, I was in love and fell deeper in love with every song that passed.

There honestly wasn't much to see on stage. It reminded me a bit of seeing Marijuana Deathsquads with how the stage was pretty bare, other than four humans set up behind computers and keyboards that formed a square towards the back of the stage. I instantly started worrying about what I was going to do for photos (and, as you can tell, I never quite figured it out and absolutely struggled through this), but as the music started, I forgot that I even had a camera around my neck. Okay, that's a lie; I was lowkey freaking out about the photos, or lack thereof, that I was going to get. I'm more just trying to say that, like the music of the two opening acts, there's something oddly tangible about the music of Toro y Moi. It hits all of your senses simultaneously, even though, at the end of the day, it's just a sound and, at times, a vibration.

Toro y Moi powered through a twenty-two-song set, and every song seemed to have the same overall vibe, but each one came with a different flavor. Some of the songs were sexy, others were dark and ominous, and some just felt fun. The one constant that flowed throughout all of the songs that Toro and his bandmates played was that everything was done with this sense of calmness. Sure, some of the tones and sounds felt a bit chaotic and loud at times, yet there was something just therapeutically calm about all of the notes that hit my ear. I know people have talked about musicians using notes and lines of notes as their paintbrushes to create a piece of art, but I've never really truly felt that-- until I saw Toro y Moi.

I don't give in to peer pressure, but I give in to curiosity, and, in the case of Toro y Moi, thankfully, curiosity did not kill the cat. Instead, it gave me a new obsession, which is all three of the acts that graced the legendary First Avenue stage on Thursday night.