I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2025] Balthvs

A couple of years ago we saw My Morning Jacket at the Met.  They played two nights in a row but we only went to one.  I’m not going to say the second night was better, but they played a lot of great songs that second night as well.  So when they announced two nights again, I grabbed GA tickets (to finally get up close to the band).

For both nights, the opener was BALTHVS, a band I didn’t know.

They are from Colombia and when I first heard a song, I lazily said they reminded me of Khruangbin.  I see that online people compare them to Khruangbin a lot, which seems to be unfair.  I don’t know Khruangbin all that well, but both bands have a similar vibe.  However, on further listen, BALTHVS has got its own thing down quite well.  But it’s fair to say they’re in the same general area of “World psychedelic funk.”

BALTHVS is a trio from Bogotá Colombia.  Balthazar Aguirre plays guitar and sings, Vanessa Muñoz a plays 5 string bass and sings and Santiago Lizcano plays drums.  The band came out and jumped into some amazing songs.  [Founding bassist Johanna Mercurian recently had a baby and obviously didn’t tour this time]

Year of the Snake is a cool slinky instrumental and it really showed off Balthazar’s guitar chops.  I also loved that Vanessa’s bass was complex–making great use of the five string.  And Santiago was a beast behind the kit.

Vapor Wave and Mood Swing were softer songs, which gave me real Karina Rykman vibes with the prominent bass and soft vocals from Johanna.  They jumped back into the faster groovy style with Ojos verde which segued into Gypsy Queen, a Gábor Szabó cover made popular by Santana, and you could totally hear the Santana bass line as they transitioned.

Light It Up is an older song (well, they’ve been around since 2020, so older is relative) and Johanna’s Dream goesback to their original.  Their music was really dreamy.  Fun and danceable but ethereal in a cool way as well.  And all of a sudden, I thought, I know this song and it turned out to be a cover of Pink Floyd’s Breathe.  And it was fantastic–sounding like the original bit with a more international feel.

Balthazar was a charming front man, although my one complaint about their set was that it was really hard to hear him.  When he sang most songs he was a little too quiet and when he spoke there was a pretty big echo on him.  Although I did enjoy when he asked if anyone spoke Spanish before playing Ojos verdes.  But for the most part I never really caught much of what he was saying.

But that didn’t matter.  Because the music was great.  I don’t know how many people in the audience knew them before this show but they won over everyone around me and made a ton of new fans, including us.

They had a 45 minute set and it went by in a flash (even my wife, who tolerates opening acts at the best of times, really enjoyed their set). I was really intrigued that with a few minutes left in their set, they gave Santiago the spotlight for a brief drum solo.  Then the band came back and finished with Heat Keeps on Risin.’

It was a terrific set and we were both looking forward to seeing them again the following night.

¥ Flesh and Soul EP (2025)
≅ Mood Swing (Principles of Vibration) EP (2025)
¾ Third Vibration (2023)
⇔ Cause & Effect (2022)
♣ MACROCOSM (2020)