Space Bacon, the late-night jamtronica specialists hailing from Brooklyn, NY, brought plenty of greasy jams to Hill Country Live on December 29, 2023. This was part of the Phish After Show series, and certainly an easy location to get to from Madison Square Garden. The band consisted of guitarist Fred Rylands, drummer Sam Crespo, keyboardist Chris Gironda, and bassist Kevin Legall.
Fans slowly streamed in after midnight, ready for more music after the Phish show. The set began around 1:00 am with an ambient intro that meandered into "Cloud Coast." The entire tune felt like a spirited chess match of dark and light between the synth and guitar.
Two-thirds of the way through, the song descended into a melodic, spacey grove that morphed into a frosty "Ice Planet." The disco dance party was in full effect as Crespo delivered beats like a freight train during this heater. A few minutes into this eighteen-minute groove, the band moved into a feel-good, trance-inspired section, led by Gironda. Intense guitar build-ups followed before the band went into astronaut mode, and achieved lift-off into outer space.
The high-energy jam reached a peak as the band cleverly transitioned into "Jupiter." The face-melting rolled on with this sixteen-minute monster that ended on a ferocious tension and release jam.
The jam vehicle that is "Bumpadump" followed for a mind-melting, prog rock-inspired, twenty-eight minutes. This morphed into a hip-hop dance party, as the crowd loved the beats. Rylands blasted off into the stratosphere with tasty guitar peaks while Legall thumped on the bass. The band came back together to end the tune properly.
"I Ran" was up next, and had the crowd running, definitely not walking, through space. Gironda cleverly layered in the keys, as the band was firing on all cylinders for this raucous tune. An intense build-up, that is incidentally worth a re-listen, proceeded as the band transitioned into the feel-good "Triangulation." Crespo showed his incredible versatility and strength on the drums. The song found its way into a trance-fueled, upbeat ambient jam that perfectly segued into the evil "Snake Charmer." This dark, heavy metal-inspired tune closed out Space Bacon's flaming hot set.
The quartet returned for an encore and delivered a raging "Flamethrower" to send fans off into the night.
Space Bacon is back frying up more greasy late-night goodness on January 27, 2024, in Dover, VT for Snow Bacon. Tickets are available at this link. Hop on over to their tour page for more winter dates.
Check out more photos from the show!
Set One: Cloud Coast > Ice Planet > Jupiter, Bumpadump, I Ran > Triangulation > Snake Charmer
Encore: Flamethrower
