The first time I heard Big Gigantic, I had no idea what I was hearing. In fact, as far as I can remember, it was my first experience actively listening to electronic music. One of my best friends, a jazz saxophonist who I played with in bands in high school, was immersed in the electronic dance music, or EDM, culture. At some point I must have let it slip the only electronic music I knew about consisted of a few Daft Punk hits and the generic “dubstep” music that echoed through the hallways of our high school around 2009—because he then saw it as his responsibility to educate me, for which I am eternally grateful. Given his profound taste for jazz and the fact we were both instrumentalists, it makes perfect sense Big Gigantic was his first recommendation.
Immediately I was hooked. Big G brought something to the table that I hadn’t heard before from electronic music—the beats were solid and the production was amazing, but their melodies were more expressive than I knew EDM could offer. The live drum and saxophone tracks set them apart stylistically, and made for an easy transition into the genre for me. They had perfected their signature sound when they released 2010’s A Place Behind the Moon: a potpourri of jazz-infused synth melodies racing up and down the octaves, highlighted by live sax and drums, backed by powerful beats and bass that rose and fell dramatically in every song. This style was even further refined on 2012’s Nocturnal. Admittedly, it's not easy for me to precisely describe Big Gigantic’s style. Maybe that’s because I don’t have the EDM vocabulary to pinpoint a subgenre and categorize them; maybe it's because they don’t belong in a subgenre at all.
Big Gigantic’s newest full-length album, The Night Is Young, dropped on February 11th, supported by a tour of the same name. During my first listen it became apparent to me that saxaphonist Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken stepped out of their comfort zone, balancing the dramatic builds and intricate melodies with a softer and smoother Big Gigantic. Much like their previous albums, The Night is Young invokes themes of outer space, the sky, and a reality slightly different from our own, and tracks like “Touch the Sky” capture the loud, funky energy that we have come to expect from them. However, the album seems to come back down to earth at times, a change that I think is a monumental success.
The band has proven repeatedly that they can conquer the heavy and energetic jams, but this album showed that they could take a step back from the hype without dampening their creativity and musicianship. The closing track, “Shooting Stars,” is the most laid-back song on the album. The title track, which features Cherub, offers a more mellow pop sound. It’s Big Gigantic’s way of saying “Hey, we can make a radio hit, too!”
Big Gigantic played in Madison on the 13th, and the Orpheum was wired. The show opened with TEKNiCOLOR, an up-and-comer from Milwaukee. The last time I saw TECKNiCOLOR live it was at his “TekniCircus” headline show, a wild spectacle of lights and performers set to his music. Although this show lacked the spectacle of the circus, Ty played a great set, and he’s definitely someone to be looking out for if you want to see some great local talent in the future. The next act, Manic Focus, played with a ton of hype because he understood the responsibility of a supporting act in this circumstance: to get people on their feet and excited for the rest of the show. He captured the crowd’s attention with vocal samples from sing-a-longs like Afroman's “Colt 45” and Sublime’s “What I Got,” which got everyone singing and dancing.
When Big Gigantic went on, the energy in the crowd was incredible. They played a really well crafted setlist—of course they played plenty of songs off of The Night is Young—but they made sure to hit all of the fan favorites from their older albums. Through both their monumental light display and Dominic’s unbridled stage presence, the energy level of their show was insane, especially when they played some of their harder-hitting songs from Nocturnal.
This energy peaked at the end of their set, when they played a personal favorite of mine, “It’s Goin Down,” immediately followed by their go-to closing song, their remix of Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us.” This was a great way for them to close their set in my opinion, because that song installed more hype in the crowd than I had seen all night. When they came back out for an encore, they played two more remixes, of Kanye West's “Get ‘em High” and Aloe Blacc's “I Need A Dollar.” As much as I would have liked to see them encore with something off of one of their older albums, it was cool to see them encore with two songs that are so wildly different from most of their set.
What made the show really special was the enthusiasm that Lalli and Salken showed for their music and their fans. After the show, Lalli hopped down in front of the stage right away and didn’t leave until every fan waiting to meet him had gotten an autograph/handshake/picture with him. It’s this kind of devotion that has me convinced that the title The Night is Young is more than a shout-out to the all-night party mindset on which this music thrives.
The Night is Young means Big Gigantic has much more in store for us. They’ve proven that their style still has room for evolution, and as their sound matures, there’s no telling what we’ll hear from them next. This album, along with their live show, have made it clear to me that anyone not familiar with their music should get used to hearing their name, because the night is young, and Big Gigantic is just getting started.
