Live review from 22nd Anniversary Festival Day 2:
1. Woodchuck
2. Volcano
3. Bad For Me
4. Instant Noodles
5. Row Your Boat
6. Dancing With My Demons
7. Toy Boy
8. (Cover of Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus)
Having never seen Cloudy with a Chance of Pandas before, I was pleasantly surprised at how strong singer Amanda’s voice is. The set begins with Woodchuck, a fun opening song to start the festival with. The next song Volcano was my favourite of the set. The bridge of the song was built up really well, the vocals are excellent, and the keys and guitar in this song just push it that extra mile. Bad for me left me wishing the song was longer, not because it was particularly short, but because I enjoyed it so much.
Already at this point in the set, it was evident how much I enjoy Amanda’s voice; I would listen to her sing about anything, which perhaps shows in the next song: Instant Noodles! Catchy and fun, Cloudy with a Chance of Pandas seems to do a great job at mixing light-hearted songs with more personal ones. I would have much preferred the bridge to feature more vocals, but admittedly ‘so hot so hot spicy spicy’ is very fun to say. The fifth song of the set is Row Your Boat, and once again the vocals are incredible. The bass here really makes the song; I feel as if I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much without it.
Another personal highlight of the set, Dancing with my Demons shows what Cloudy with a Chance of Pandas does best: mixing silliness and vulnerability. The band sounds pleasantly jovial whilst Amanda sings out her feelings. It builds nicely, everyone is playing excellently, a great song to showcase the strengths of the band.
As we reach the last original song, the band has noticeably relaxed a lot more since the start of the set, and the audience’s attention hasn’t wavered for a minute. Toy Boy is a fun, albeit slightly repetitive, song to end the originals with. It would have been great to have Amanda unleash her vocals more throughout the song in the way she does before the final chorus, but it is a fun song nonetheless.
The band finishes their set with a cover of Teenage Dirtbag, which was a great choice. The cover was very well done, it felt like the band kept everything people like about the original whilst putting their own spin on it.
Needless to say, I had a great time watching this band. Cherry on top of a great set was the free stickers they gave out afterwards :).
I’m excited to catch Cloudy with a Chance of Pandas wherever they play next!
-Ash B
