TANTRIC – “25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR” – ROCKING HORSE BAR
By Kat Gullage
Tantric is a type of sex that originated from ancient traditions and utilizes a slow, meditative approach to
intimacy. Tantric is also the name of a post-grunge alt rock band that captured magic in the early aughts with a string of hits. They’ve sold over 600,000 albums, and their self titled debut album, Tantric, went gold.
I don’t know what it is about a Tantric gig, but I always have the best fucking time. I’ll admit, I’ve heard
essentially the same setlist before and these days the band is basically founder, frontman, singer, acoustic
guitarist and keyboardist Hugo Ferreira alongside a revolving door of bandmates.
Somehow, Hugo always recruits talented musicians that just work. And I never tire of hearing these songs live. This stop was part of the ongoing 25th Anniversary Tour, “Celebrating 25 years of their gold-certified debut album”. Across their career, Tantric has released eight studio albums and fed us tracks from three of ‘em in their fifteen song set.
The prerecorded violin intro signaled the beginning of “Down & Out” (The End Begins) as Hugo’s accomplices took their marks. Jarad Carney on lead axe and backing vocals, super fun Breezy Bree on bass and drummer Wendall Eubanks provided the background boom from behind the kit.
It came as no surprise that the band launched into Tantric in its entirety, the only twist being Track 1 was moved to the end of the sequence. “After We Go”, “Live Your Life (Down)”, “I Don’t Care” got everyone wound up early. Hugo intermittently thanked us for coming out and supporting the band over the years and asked “Here to have a good time tonight?” We proved that we were in fact, 100% there for that.
“Paranoid” and “Revillision” gave way to the melancholy ballad “Mourning”. Although this was an outdoor venue, the sound quality was really good. Hugo reminisced about knowing the next song would be a hit cuz it included the word “fuckers” in it. That song, of course, was fan favorite “Astounded”. From there, Tantric rolled through “I’ll Stay Here”, “Frequency”, “All To Myself”, “Hate Me” and “Inside Your Head”. The fans were already movin but they absolutely went wild for the band’s biggest hit, “Breakdown”.
After a quick interlude they fed us an encore of “Hey Now” (After We Go). The group has been doing some exciting things. Most recently Hugo sang the National Anthem at a Tampa Bay Rays game honoring Evan Longoria during the retirement of his jersey. A fitting tribute, considering Evan used “Down &
Out” as his walk-up song throughout his entire career.
Tantric remains a touring machine with dates running through September, so you really have no excuse not to catch a show. Remember Tantric? Time to reintroduce yourself. Never heard of Tantric? Welcome to the show.
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