Bonobo @ McDonald Theatre - Eugene, OR

     Fragments is the brand new 2022 record from British musician and producer Simon Green, also known as Bonobo. It’s a further dive of Green’s into the world-influenced and exotically ambient realms of sound space. Completion of his new project came with a staggering international tour spanning February to September. On March 23rd, Bonobo swung from a Seattle vine into Eugene, OR for the first time ever before his final night of the initial tour leg in Portland. 

     British collaborator and support artist Jordan Rakei began the concert at McDonald Theatre on Thursday night with his brand of minimal key-driven alt soul. After a chilling solo set, he cleared the floor for Simon and his band. Bonobo performed a catalogue of favorites from his career as an electronic artist, and he did this with a full roster of backup musicians to bring the sounds to their best life. The setlist focused largely on material from the new album as well, with which Green enlisted Jordan Rakei and fellow Bonobo-featured artist Nicole Miglis to aid with lead vocals. Psychedelic safaris and jungle jams of Green’s creation became sonic botanical overgrowths lending much grander effect in person, simultaneously satisfying and shattering expectations of live performance. And what’s an earthshaking musical experience without a dedicated arsenal of uniquely-shaped stage lights and surreal, projected imagery? This harmony of visual and auditory lasers really tied the show together.