Thundercat Thrills on Halloween Night

The folks at Marathon Music Works can say they threw a pretty good Halloween party on Saturday night, even if the concert wasn’t officially billed as such. An audience decked out in costumes — from a crew of Super Mario characters to a dude dressed up like the late, great MF DOOM — was buzzy and ready for Thundercat, a musician who’s no stranger to over-the-top looks.

Due to trick-or-treaters and an unrelated traffic jam, I missed opener Channel Tres. But I can’t recommend their recent release Enigma POV enough — a danceable album that tinkers with some classic techno and jungle hits.

A blitzing drum solo from "Children of the Baked Potato" — a 2025 collab with Remi Wolf — brought Thundercat to the stage, and he unleashed his own tornadic bass line. After some riffing with the crowd, the artist born Stephen Lee Bruner launched into a few songs from Distracted, the 2026 LP he’s touring behind. Early on it seemed like the instruments would drown out his signature falsetto, but Thundercat’s voice was consistent and clear most of the night.

He jumped into the petulant breakup song “No More Lies,” dropping his falsetto to sing the verses recorded by Tame Impala’s Kevin Brown. He also did justice to the late Mac Miller’s bouncing flow while maintaining a punchy bass line for “She Knows Too Much,” capping off Mac’s standout line with a bold shout: “You can talk about the universe and energy / But all you really want is a celebrity.”

Thundercat Holds Our Attention in Distracting Times

The living bass legend speaks to the Scene before his Halloween show at Marathon Music Works

A big fan of geeky pop culture, Thundercat called out many of the costumes in the crowd from shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and Inuyasha. The bassist mused that people should be able to rock costumes year-round — “You should go to church dressed as Wario,” he said. A noted Trekkie, he also shouted, “Rest in peace, Patrick Stewart” during the song “Walking on the Moon,” a spacey love ballad that features the line “You’re my Uhura.” And the space voyage didn’t stop there: He announced he’ll be on the cover of an upcoming Star Wars comic book before launching into “Anakin Learns His Fate.”

The plethora of costumes gave the show a bit of a house-party vibe — especially at the edges of the crowd, where folks mingled or wandered to the bar, missing out on some solid flashes of brilliant acid jazz when Thundercat and his band explored their trippy solos. It was impressive how full a sound the relatively small band made: Thundercat was joined by cat-eared keyboardist Dennis Hamm, disco-ball-helmeted drummer Justin Brown, and two backup singers who he later revealed were his nieces Adora and Puma, singing on their first tour. 

That said, the man made his name as a killer bassist, and there were plenty of ferocious solos throughout the night on both the hits and the deeper cuts, adding extra oomph to some beloved tracks. He pulled out an extra-funky version of self-deprecating slow jam “Dragonball Durag,” which got the crowd moving and singing along to lines like, “I may be covered in cat hair / But I still smell good.” Thudding bass lines and crashing drums added some swagger to closing number “Them Changes,” one of best R&B songs of the 2010s and Thundercat's breakout hit. 

While he exited the stage with a loud “Happy fucking Halloween,” Thundercat returned minutes later for a two-song encore with a glittery yellow bass featuring Sonic the Hedgehog artwork. First he performed a solo rendition of “Show You the Way” (originally recorded with his soft-rock heroes Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald), and then the band returned for “Friend Zone," a synth-driven tune juxtaposing video games and relationship games.