Fitz and The Tantrums @ Canalside, Buffalo, New York 7-10-14

It’s been a great year so far at Canalside in downtown Buffalo for this year’s summer concert season. This past Thursday neo soul and indie pop band Fitz and The Tantrums furthered the success of the series. This Los Angeles based band has been gaining steam over the last handful of years especially with the release of their last studio effort titled “More Than Just a Dream.” Both singles “The Walker” and “Out of my League” went to number 1 on the US Alternative charts.

The band is fronted by the spirited Michael Fitzpatrick and the ever so energetic Noelle Scaggs. Both Fitzpatrick and Scaggs complement each other so well, it pushes the bands performances to new levels. “Out of My League” showed their synergy, yet both take command of the stage without stepping on each other’s toes. I was very impressed by the diversity of James King as he played saxophone, keyboards, flute and percussion during the set. He is, in my opinion, probably the most important part of the band, and he even played different types of saxophones on the track “L.O.V.” It’s not often you see the flute featured in the chorus and that was just the case on the song “Tell Me What Ya Here For.”

What Fitzpatrick did at one point during “Moneygrabber” was have everyone squat down and even pointed out the people who weren’t doing it and waited for them to participate. Once they did, they had everyone jump in unison to the beat of the song. What the new management has done for the Canalside venue cannot be understated here. It makes going downtown exciting again and when they are brining quality acts like Fitz and The Tantrums to perform it’s a win for Buffalo and the acts alike!

Setlist:

Get Away
Don’t Gotta Work It Out
Break the Walls
Breakin’ the Chains of Love
Keepin Our Eyes Out
Spark
MerryGoRound
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics cover)
Out of My League
House on Fire
Fools Gold
Last Raindrop
6AM
Tell Me What Ya Here For
L.O.V.