Knockdown Center is filled with blaring electronics, psychedelic visuals and monotonous singing Panda and the Sonic Boom Taken over Friday night (7/21).The evening starts with energetic DJ music Brax + Falcon, ending with a remix of Daft Punk’s Panda Bear’s “Doin’ It Right” and the first performance of their own Panda collaboration, “Step By Step” (watch the video below). It’s the last show of Braxe + Falcon’s tour with Panda Bear and Sonic Boom – the rest of the latter’s shows are festival sets. When the warehouse was packed, Panda and Sonic Boom took to the stage for a colorful and vibrant scene.The tour is the duo’s first in support of their great 2022 record resetand, fittingly, their main gig is playing the album in its entirety. reset Mixing a wild array of styles, from doo wop to surf rock to eerie folk and more, with Balearic percussion and near-constant synth noise. Needless to say, the soundscape is busy—almost to an overwhelming degree, as feedback bounces off the synths, adding to the chaos.
It’s an impressive techno show, but Panda Bear and Sonic Boom never lose their fun. Each of them pulls out a wealth of auxiliary percussion and hand-held instruments, including train whistles, sticks, blocks, and more. Sonic Boom wore a slip whistle around his neck throughout the show, adding whimsy with each blow. In addition to classroom instruments, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom led the audience to clap for parts of almost every song. All of this happens in the face of vibrant, shimmering visuals, swirling colors and disintegrating motion-capture animation (Sonic Boom credits Pedro Lopan for visuals and Peter Freeman for sound). The small units of the Panda Bear and Sonic Boom make so much noise: they each have just one small rig with lots of knobs, and plenty of room for a drink and a handheld instrument. The entire album ranges from dreamy and funny (“Gettin’ To The Point,” “Edge Of The Edge,” “Danger”) to visceral and nightmarish (“In My Body” and “Everything’s Been Lead To This” at the end of the title track), with few breaks in small talk, save for the occasional “thanks a lot” from Sonic Boom. Panda has largely reserved his voice for the show, as it dominates the entire album. His lingering yodeling was impressive, and in some moments brought to mind Delores O’Riordan and old friend Vashti Bunyan. When they wrapped up their lead role based on Everything’s Been Lead To This, Sonic Boom delivered a “good vibe” to the crowd before they left.
A minute later, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom are back and kicking off with “Just A Little Piece Of Me” from Sonic Boom’s 2020 solo LP, reprising five songs for their solo “hit” all things are equal. The encore ended with two of Panda’s greatest songs: Personnel referral favorite “bro” and devastating met death Track “Tropic of Cancer” – a stunning end to an amazing evening.
Check out photos from P Squared, fan-shot videos and the full track listing below.
panda and sonic boom reset in dubbingRemastered by Adrian Sherwood, released digitally via Domino’s on August 18th.
Tracklist: Panda Bear & Sonic Boom @ Knockdown Center, July 21, 2023 (pass)
Into the title
continue
every day
edge of edge
in my body
swirl
Danger
live after
everything leads to this
Encore:
Just a Small Part of Me (Sonic Boom song)
The Preakness (Panda Song)
Something Like This (A Little Deeper) (Sonic Boom song)
Brothers (Panda Song)
Tropic of Cancer (Song of the Panda)
Panda and Sonic Boom are on tour through late summer with more festival appearances, and will return to Austin’s Levitation Festival this fall (hopefully with more shows here). All dates below.
Panda and the Sonic Boom — 2023 Tour Dates
July 28 – Brno, Czech Republic @ Pop Messe
August 6 – @OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland
August 13 – Castelbuono, Sicily, Italy @ Ypsigrock Festival
August 26th – Torremolinos, Spain @ Canela Party
31 August – 3 September – Tollard Royal @ End of the Road, UK
September 8 – San Sebastian, Spain @Boga Boga Festibala
October 7 – Leiria, Portugal @ Ágora
October 27 – Austin, TX @ Levitation
November 24th – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain @Keroxen
