September 16, 2024

Another throw back to my freshman year of college, how about that! I saw Cage the Elephant and Glass Animals each twice in the same week back in 2016. I’ve been ecstatic to have them both back in action and touring close to Omaha. It felt full circle to see them within weeks of each other again 8 years later. Glass Animals played at CHI Health Center with opening acts Bakar and Young the Giant. CHI closed the upper bowl of the arena, making it feel slightly more intimate than shows where acts fill the entire arena, which I appreciated. However, the merch tables for the lower bowl were the only ones open, exacerbating long waits for precious merch. Given the lines, instead of merch being the first stop per usual, we went down to find our seats for the first opening act, Bakar. Bakar is a one-man act from England who performs indie rock music. During his set, the stage mainly stayed dark, with several spotlights shining directly on him. This felt like the right choice given that he had no band behind him as support. The attention stayed solely on him. Although we knew none of his songs, we bounced along with his catchy tunes.

Following Bakar, we saw Young the Giant perform for the fourth time. I swear, every time we see Young the Giant, they just keep getting better and better. The first time I saw Young the Giant was during opening weekend of the College World Series in June 2014 at TD Ameritrade Park. They performed in a parking lot in front of a much smaller crowd than at CHI. They were fantastic in 2014, but at risk of sounding too cliché, Sameer Gadhia’s voice ages like fine wine.

They put on an energetic performance, with Gadhia jumping around stage on the last night of their performances on the Neon Pill tour. On their last night on the tour, they mixed up their setlist, playing a mix of best hits and lesser known jams. I’ve loved Young the Giant since my dad introduced them to me, but I was surprised to hear many songs that I hadn’t before that night. Even so, we danced around while the colorful lights bounced around the arena.

Following Young the Giant, we ran to the merch tables to get into a much shorter merch line. Cage the Elephant had many good choices for merch, which doesn’t always happen. Typically I find myself with one good choice, but this time there were almost too many. I ended up with a gray comfort colors tee with a colorful front design for the Neon Pill tour and all of the cities on the back. Comfort colors is a much better quality t-shirt than most bands choose for their concert merch, which I appreciated. And, it made the $40 price tag much more palatable.

Then, we buckled down to hear Cage the Elephant perform their 23 song setlist. Every song on the setlist was an absolute banger and loud, loud, loud. Thank goodness I sprang for concert earplugs to help save my ears from past years of high-decibel concert environments and to help protect for many more years to come. When I took out a plug to get the full sound experience, I was blown away by the high volume of rock pumping through the arena. This concert was the loudest I have ever experienced, which says a lot for the number of concerts I’ve been to over the years.

Cage the Elephant is just as energetic as I remember them being 8 years ago, which also says a lot given Matt Shultz, the lead singer, used a knee scooter to get around the stage. After the first song, he explained a broken foot required that he learn how to bust a move on a knee scooter for the past month.

Shultz’s voice is so distinct and matches so well with the music they produce you can’t help but jumping around and singing at the top of your lungs in return. The set design felt minimalistic with large round lights in a line behind the band providing back-lighting. Meanwhile, the neon light show was unmatched. During their new song, Rainbow, they projected several rainbows across the arena on what looked like clouds in the sky. I stood there mesmerized while the lyrics swam around me. This turned out to be my favorite part of the entire concert. Overall, their setlist provided all of our favorite hits, plus all of my favorite songs from the new album, which doesn’t happen at most concerts. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

OVERALL RATINGS

Venue: 6/10

Setlist: 8.5/10

Sound Quality: 7/10

Merch: 9/10

Vibes: 10/10