Gramatik is about a week into his North American Re:Coil Tour, in support of his EP of the same name that he released in October. EDMTunes was on hand for Gramatik’s show on Saturday at Skyway Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and judging by the performance he put on, it’s safe to say this guy has got his live performance down to a science. Joined on stage by his frequent touring guitarist Adam Stehr, the duo threw down a set that was equal parts electro, dub and glitch, complemented by Stehr’s magnificent blues influenced guitar. Having already seen Gramatik a few times, the improvement from set to set is noticeable, and Gramatik is definitely at the top of his game, Stehr being a big part of that as well.
The evening kicked off with an outstanding set from Gramatik’s most recent Lowtemp Music signee, trumpet player and producer Balkan Bump. Balkan Bump, born Will Magid, studied Ethnomusicology—the study of music of different cultures—and that educational influence certainly showed throughout his set. Additionally, he is an incredibly fundamentally sound trumpet player, delivering crisp trumpet solos from start to finish. Balkan Bump has an EP set to release on Lowtemp any day now, and we are eager to hear what Magid’s first body of work under the Balkan Bump moniker will sound like. He has already dropped the first single from the EP, “Irfan,” and was featured on “Aymo” from Re:Coil Pt. 1. Balkan Bump was followed by Haywyre, who is an absolute ace on the keyboard. Playing on a keyboard angled toward the audience, the crowd could see exactly what Haywyre was laying down at all times. His hour long set was mostly a pop & disco leaning affair, and definitely got everyone’s dancing muscles going.
The final two hours belonged to Gramatik, and boy did he deliver. He began his set with one of his latest releases “Future Crypto” off Re:Coil Pt. 1, and played each of the tracks from the new EP at some point during the evening. Gramatik brought out Balkan Bump to perform live horn segments numerous times, including to perform “Aymo”, as well as one of the grooviest jams of Gramatik’s career “Hit That Jive,” GRiZ & Big Gigantic’s “Good Times Roll,” and Grizmatik’s “As We Proceed.” Stehr was a highlight throughout the evening; even on tunes that originally had little to no guitar elements, Stehr managed to incorporate something into the mix. Some of his highlights included an epic rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile,” his true heavy metal additions to Herobust’s “Heavy Meddle” and his blistering performance of Gramatik’s upcoming collaboration with Gary Clarke Jr. and Tom Morello, “Can’t Stop the Bleeding;” you can see their debut of the upcoming collaboration performed at Red Rocks below.
Gramatik still has a good majority of the North American tour remaining, so if you know what’s good for you, try and catch him while you still can. You can take a look at the rest of the tour dates and ticket prices here.
