This summer I’m very lucky to be living in New York City for an internship. There are many perks to being in the city, one in particular being able to see a bunch of amazing live music. Three days after arriving in New York, I quickly bought tickets to see Gold Panda. Thanks to a recommendation from a close friend, I fell in love pretty quickly with his music and was excited to hear that he would be performing in New York right when I arrived.

The concert was held in the Bowery Ballroom, a gorgeous venue that reminded me a lot of the Gothic in Denver. It was an intimate space and had three bars, a general floor near the stage and balconies on either side of the stage. I was fortunate enough to snag a seat up on the balcony, which gave me a perfect view of the stage and allowed me to make some new friends.

The show had two openers that I had never heard of. First was Rioux, an experimental, electronic artist that, despite lacking a large set-up, captivated me the whole time. He had really unique beats, layered rhythms and sounds that worked quite well together. To get a feel for his style check out “Phantasm” and “Dance of the Illusion,” both pretty mellow dance tracks.

Next up was Heathered Pearls, a unique house artist that kept the whole crowd dancing during his entire set. Now I wouldn’t say I would listen to his music on a regular basis, but in the heat of a concert, you can’t help but feel the beat with everyone else. While his recorded stuff is very mellow and relaxed, like “Sunken Living Area” for example, on stage his beats were pretty heavy and he brought a much stronger energy to his music.

Now on to the main act. I was interested to see how Gold Panda’s music translated into a concert setting. His sound is very relaxed—and, I’ve realized, perfect to listen to while walking through the city—but Gold Panda brought it. He changed up a lot of his songs and brought a huge amount of energy just as Heathered Pearls did.

The most impressive thing for me was his set up. He had a crazy amount of machines, all with hundreds of knobs, turnstiles, pads, etc. It was like watching a mad scientist do his work; Gold Panda was all over the place but he didn’t slip up once.

He seemed to use a little improvisation every once and awhile too. One of my favorite moments of the show was during his song “Chiba Nights” when he sneakily dropped everything out to total silence and you could hear a sad “aww” come from the crowd. He brought it right back though, and the crowd got super hyped—it was incredible.

Gold Panda had just come off the release of his new album “Good Luck And Do Your Best” and will be touring all over the world, but unfortunately, not to Denver. Be sure to check out his stuff though, you may be familiar with “You,” famously sampled by Charli XCX in her song “You – Ha Ha Ha,” and his entire new album. “In My Car” and “Your Good Times are Just Beginning” are two of my favorites.

I’ll be in New York City the whole summer, so I’ll be sure to find plenty of artists to send your way and go to as many concerts as possible. By the time this is posted, I’ll have gone to the Beyoncé concert so if you never hear from me again, you know why.

Spotify Playlist: https://play.spotify.com/user/universityofdenverclarion/playlist/69PeEhiJqnTRZnlrCYp0Hs