Photos and review by: Jason Robey
CHARLOTTE, NC — Non-stop touring and a grueling festival schedule this summer is paying off for the jam band powerhouse Dizgo with noticeably bigger crowds with each visit to the Queen City. Buzz and excitement filled the air in the Visulite Theatre as the crowd began filling in well before show time for the quartet’s first headlining show at the popular venue.
Rising artist Natalie Brooke and her band warmed the crowd up with an hour-long set that promises to see her headlining before long. Brooke’s energetic keyboard style and soaring vocals drove the band through a captivating performance, kicking off with a blazing take on her whimsical “Sexy Mofo.” Guitarist Luke Walker traded virtuosic licks with Brooke’s swirling synth lines throughout, taking turns to shine on original and often instrumental tracks like “Noodles 2.0.” One of the highlights of the set was a surprise cover of Pink Floyd’s “Young Lust,” featuring bassist Jacob Nadeau on vocals. The band explored new territory on the instrumental section of the song, taking the performance into an atonal trip through the depths of their creativity and spontaneity. As their time on stage drew to a close, they ran through their latest single, the jazzy “Hands.”
Dizgo kicked their set off with a nearly fifteen-minute version of “Run,” with its urgent buildups and explosive releases leading to a groove heavy improv section. They quickly jumped into another long exploration of “Fundamentals,” blending 70s funk rhythm with 80s-inspired synth leads and a few interesting lines through a vocoder for some icing on the cake.
The band took only a couple breaks from the jam-heavy set to let the audience catch their breath, the first of which was a brilliant cover of Green Day’s “Brain Stew.” They made the normally simple track into a bouncy romp with a guitar solo from vocalist/guitarist Andrew Pickel that sent the song into space, while remaining grounded with the familiar chords filling the background.
The evening’s only song from their latest album, 2024’s Melt, was a 20-minute journey into the intricacies of “Rainbow Lightning.” Keyboardist Jake Evatt led the improvisation into an atmospheric tapestry of free-form exploration. The rhythm section of bassist Kevin Hinnefeld and drummer Justin Clark moved smoothly from funk into an almost-heavy metal break, complete with a few-bar tease of Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” before exploding back into the chorus, if only as a reminder to where the jam started.
The set filled out with a trio of new songs, “Intuition,” “Orbital,” and “Singularity,” before bringing Natalie Brooke out to sit in on a raucous cover of James Brown’s funk classic “Give It To Me.” Brooke and Evatt took turns with colorful synth leads while the crowd danced to the thunderous rhythm until the final beat. With their growing popularity and expanding repertoire, Dizgo is a must-see band while it’s still possible to get up close with the band. Check their social media channels for upcoming shows.
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