When genre-crossing funk/psychedelia musician Thundercat rocked up to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2017, he performed a live set that would keep fans hooked for life, featuring Jon Batiste and the show’s house band, Stay Human.
This performance of the Thundercat track “Them Changes” has gone viral over on YouTube, racking up over 3.1 million views to date. Check it out in the clip below!
In mismatched colors and indoor shades, Thundercat takes to the stage in impeccably unique style, his outfit inspired by Chiaotzu from Dragon Ball Z. And his music is just as hypnotically strange. This jazz-fusion star doesn’t just dabble in dissonance, he dives deep into the quirks which make the jazz-funk-soul scene so endlessly entertaining, even for haters of the genre.
Thundercat’s six-string bass skills are phenomenal, his fingers working like a tarantula across the frets, slaying split-second solos that pack an impossible number of rapid-fire notes between his vocal lines. While his soft and smooth voice taps into some Bee Gees-inspired falsettos, it’s the sound of Thundercat’s obscenely wet bass tone which steals the spotlight; fat, retro, and fantastically authentic.
But what makes this performance even more special is the energy of Jon Batiste’s band Stay Human; just watch the tambourine player grooving in the background, shocked at Thundercat’s talent, and the incredible harpsichord-style solo Jon unleashes in the midst of the song, as if he’s a 60s prog rock god.
“Them Changes” first featured on Thundercat’s 2015 EP, “The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam,” before making its way onto the LA artist’s 2017 album, “Drunk.” This clip follows the release of “Drunk,” Thundercat’s third solo studio album and winner of BBC Radio 6 Music’s Album of the Year, despite only peaking at #37 on the UK album charts.
Fans have had a lot to say about this viral performance, and for good reason. One top commenter saw Thundercat’s true talent in this clip when they wrote: “Playing rhythm and melody and another polyrhythm underneath. And singing lead. Lol. That’s just unteachable. Incredible musician.”
Other fans have seen the light in this accidentally hilarious performance, writing, “That tambourine guy has more energy than everyone in the audience combined” and “The band looks like when you get a bunch of randoms on your team in Call Of Duty, but y’all f*****g crush it.”