All fruit shall be equal from here on out,” announces Dave Konopka midway through Battles’ set. “Who likes pineapple?”
It’s a short and sweet piece of audience interaction, and the only instance in which it occurs. Battles are fully engaged with their instruments as they play the Original Stage, paying little attention to the audience – but it’d be hard to find a more passionate performance. John Stanier on drums, originally wearing a salmon pink shirt, is half-drowned in sweat by the end of the hour-long set.
Fully engrossed and entirely polished, as always, Battles put on a highly entertaining performance. ‘Atlas’ in particular is a crowd-pleaser, and the fist-bumping (and mostly shirtless) crowd only gets bigger as time goes on. Williams, Konopka and Stanier seem to communicate through thought rather than by using actual words, and they don’t put a step wrong during yet another impeccable show.