Toro y Moi @ Teragram Ballroom, Red Bull 30 Days In LA

The atmosphere was thick Monday night in Downtown Los Angeles's new show venue Teragram Ballroom.  The sold out crowd for day 9 of Red Bull's 30 Days In LA flocked to see Indie Chill Wave champion Chaz Bundick, aka Toro y Moi, and his band return to LA for this special performance.
 
As the crowd continued to grow earlier on in the night Roger Sellers greeted them as the first act.  A Synth Pop mad scientist, Sellers was a one man band triggering backing tracks, looping live percussion, adding noise with guitar pedals and singing on every song.  Very heavy on the ambiance yet manic in actions, his porn-stached nerd image was contrary to the sophisticated mood and, at times, sexy tone of his tracks.  Up second was Brooklyn trio Young Magic.  Equally as ambient as Sellers, Magic's music surrounds you but with much darker energy.  The group is backed with visual projections that accompany every track to accentuate the rhythms and moods.  In the fashion of Polica and the legendary Cocteau Twins, front woman Melati Malay drowns in a sea of reverb and vocal FX that make the lyrics indecipherable yet resonate stronger.  Pulling much from their 2014 release, Breathing Statues, the cinematic tunes left the crowd silent and focused, something difficult to achieve from the often jaded residents of Los Angeles.
 
Toro y Moi is a project produced and performed by one man but live they are a full band as Chaz introduces them all under the name.  From the first song on to the end the crowd danced and sang verbatim to songs that have become very personal favorites to many.  Despite a loyal cult following across the country, many mainstream music fans are still unaware of his existence.  The set list touched on every album from, 2009's  Causers Of This to this year's What For?, exhibitng a vast repertoire of 80's Boogie/Post Disco to 70's Psychadelic Indie Rock, stylistically falling somewhere between Jamiroquai and Tame Impala.  Somehow the combination works as the multi-instrumentalist leader jumps from keys to guitar, singing in his trademark soft delivery.  Not the most animated front-man,  his introverted demeanor and chill studio tracks become louder and more aggressive live, dance inducing, demanding the audience 2-step for the duration of the 1-hour set.  Sweaty and satisfied, the LA crowd headed home to rest up for the remaining 21 shows on Red Bull's lineup.
 
photos: Red Bull Content Pool