The roar of over 5,000 people has an eerie quality in our self-isolated times, and having witnessed the sheer magnitude and impact of this gig first hand, for me this night now feels like its from a another dimension. There are other resonances too with the UK, and London in particular, being the vital stepping stone on which Snarky Puppy catapulted themselves into a globetrotting live juggernaut.

Of course, such success has spurred their critics and recent multi-tracked studio albums have watered down the frisson of previous ‘live in the studio’ sets such as We Like It Here and Sylva. Yet this is an emphatic riposte to the haters; there are very few (if any) instrumental bands of this size, in any genre, that can do what Snarky do. Thus, if the live spectacle was a colossal wave of sound, then this meticulously captured recording reveals the nuanced sonic punch and detail of the playing. While bassist/bandleader Michael League is the mastermind behind the marvels of their multi-layered, poly-metric jazz-rock into soul-funk-fusion grooves and their razor-sharp horn melodies, this is very much a team effort.

Solos are long and allowed to evolve, the crowd urging on the likes of tenorist Bob Reynolds and trumpeters Shaun Stanton and Mike ‘Maz’ Maher. There are keyboard fireworks too from Londoner Bill Laurance on the Afro-latin vibed ‘Xavi’, but it's Shaun Martin who steals the show on ‘Sleeper’ with a dazzling solo using his ‘Talkbox’ synth to speak to the crowd via his keyboard, with explosively funky results. Drawing from their recent studio albums rather than playing a ‘greatest hits’ show was a risk, but the live takes of ‘Bigly Strictness’, ‘Chonks’ and ‘Bad Kids to the Back’, thump home with a romping, block-rocking power (often thanks to the zinging double-percussion-and-drums) this is the band at peak creativity and virtuosic oneness of purpose. They couldn't sign off such a seismic night without one of their ‘anthems’ and it's the Arabic-inflected ‘Shofukan’ that seals this evening perfectly, with band and audience mutating into one unified mass, the likes of which we are unlikely to see for some time. So, crank this up and savour every note until we can all get together again.