TANTRIC 25th Anniversary Tour as They Take Over​ Toads in New Haven, CT

Written By: Kat Gullage
Photography By: Holly Roy Photography

Yes, Tantric is a type of sex that transforms fucking into a meditative journey of connection and energy. It’s also the name of a band that caught lightning in a bottle in the early aughts and released songs that are still in your playlist rotation today. Tracks that continue to hit ya in the feels.

We caught opening night of their nineteen date tour at the legendary Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Our publisher’s favorite city. Tantric headlined the annual mini festival Opus’ Blizzard B-Day Bash 26, celebrating Christian “Opus” Lawrence, the band’s current drummer.

Tantric has released eight studio LPs, and they dipped into three of em for their seventeen song set. Vocalist and frontman Hugo Ferreira is the sole remaining original member. The list of former members rivals the Cleveland Browns list of starting quarterbacks. Still, Hugo always manages to surround himself with serious talent. On this night he was backed by Matt Fuller - lead guitar, Jarad Carney - rhythm guitar, Breezy Bree (Breanne “Breezy” Powell) on bass and hometown hero Christian “Opus” Lawrence on drums.

The band was introduced by comedian Don Jamieson, best known as former co-host of That Metal Show. He got a laugh out of us with, “Buy some shirts and stuff, cocaine is not cheap”, before leading a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for our local beloved percussionist, Opus. Tantric opened with a hit from The End Begins, “Down And Out”. The electric violin intro was prerecorded, but once the band took the stage the sound quality was solid. The crowd was riled up, circle pits broke out sporadically. At Tantric. Hugo yelled “Make some noise!” and the fans responded loudly, before they unleashed title track “After We Go”. A B-Side track, “Cliche”,
followed. This tour is the 25th anniversary of their self-titled, gold certified debut LP, Tantric. Therefore the set included the album in its entirety, except they saved the opening track for last. The lights dropped and a short montage played showing vintage MTV footage of Tantric before they belted out “Live Your Life (Down)”, “I Don’t Care”, “Paranoid” and “Revillusion”.

After that run, everyone left the stage except Hugo. “Thank you. Are we having a good time tonight?” The crowd relayed their enthusiasm. Hugo spoke about performing “Mourning” back in the day and promised he was going to “take us back to that exact moment”. He delivered the song solo and acoustic. I noticed there were a lot of conversations happening, I could hear the chatter over the music, but the moment still landed. With the band back and plugged in, fan favorite “Astounded” reignited the room. Hugo checked in again, “Y’all having a good time?”. Fans broadcasted their approval. The celebratory stretch resumed with “I’ll Stay Here”, “Frequency”, “All To Myself”, “Hate Me” and “Inside Your Head”. They saved their biggest hit, “Breakdown”, for last and the crowd lost their shit. I saw a freaking crowd surfer. At Tantric! He wiped out but a fellow concert goer helped him up, which is proper pit-iquette. The encore featured “Hey Now”from After We Go, and Hugo expressed their gratitude as the band lined up for a crowd shot, closing the night on a high note.

Remember Tantric? Time to get reacquainted. Never heard of them? Time for an introduction.

And for a fun night out, catch a live performance.