Article and Photos by: Jason Robey

CHARLOTTE, NC — From the opening drum fill of “Mucho,” the funk-tinted prog-rock quartet Dopapod took the Charlotte crowd on a musical journey, filled with twists and turns. In typical jam-band style, the band changes their setlist nightly and covering their entire catalog. The first half-hour of the show went uninterrupted, as songs melted seamlessly in and out of each other, including a couple minutes instrumental jam on the Pink Floyd classic “Us and Them.”

To complement the flow of the music, the band incorporated a dazzling light and laser display into the performance. With colors and intensity changing in sync with the songs, extended jams in songs like “Indian Grits” and a transcendent 30-minute performance of “FABA” kept the audience mesmerized throughout the evening. Keeping the crowd on their toes, the second set included an unexpected cover of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” which flowed easily into “Bubble Brain.”

As the evening began to wind down, the group got the audience jumping with a 20-minute rendition of one of their most popular songs, the slightly quirky “Trapper Keeper.” The band finally signed off for the night with an encore of “Weedie” from their latest studio album, 2019’s Emit Time. Follow Dopapod on social media for tour dates.