For years, I heard the Gospel of Snarky Puppy. Friends told me how great they were. The Pimps of Joytime listed the Brooklyn-based band with Texas roots as a major influence. When I saw Robert “Sput” Searight sit in with Herbie Hancock’s all-star ensemble at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, I started to get an idea of what the hype for this jazz-fusion outfit was about. Then, on the penultimate day of February, after getting warmed up to the glistening global rhythms of Banda Magda, I watched Snarky Puppy from the front row of the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles and had all of my expectations—along with my mind and music-loving soul—blown away.

Rarely had I seen 11 people take the stage outside of, say, an orchestral performance or a full-album extravaganza by Stevie Wonder. Rarer still, under those circumstances, was the absence of a vocal part, save for Jamison Ross’ humming on “Gemini.” Not that Snarky Puppy needed any lyrics whatsoever to not only bring the house down but enlist the help of a capacity crowd of nearly 2,000 revelers.

First, out of left field, came the body-absorbing, head-banging bass from Michael League’s synthesizer on “Beep Box” followed by Nate Werth’s expert percussive work. Then came the decidedly more Latin vibes of “Semente”, another keeper from 2016’s Culcha Vulcha, featuring Jay Jennings’ fluttering flows on flugelhorn. Funkier vibes supplied by Bob Reynolds’ tenor sax and Bob Lanzetti’s legendary guitar work led the way on “Grown Folks.”

After jamming on “Gemini”, Snarky Puppy departed to other albums. The five-piece wind section took center stage for “What About Me?” off 2014’s We Like it Here. Justin Stanton’s trilling trumpet tailored a tour through “Thing of Gold” from 2012’s groundUP, and Shaun Martin’s key-stroking brought a turnt-up Tuesday crowd into “Ready Wednesday”—the closer from 2010’s Tell Your Friends.

It wasn’t until the encore that the true power of the Puppy crystallized before my eyes. The band returned to raucous applause, and as soon as the first hints of “Shofukan” trickled through the interior fog, there wasn’t an occupied seat in the venue—because the entire crowd had risen to its feet. Lest anyone think that lyrics are a requirement for a proper call-and-response, Martin put that notion to bed. Everyone joined in with the horns on the central hook of the song, which grew louder and more joyful with each of Shaun’s provocations and “Super Mario Bros” invocations. When he asked for the sea of voices before him to harmonize, they all happily obliged.

Eight tracks were all it took to turn this curious observer into a Disciple of the Snark. That’s what happens when each of those tracks is carried by such a stellar collective, like the most brilliant and eclectic “Drums/Space” sequence the Grateful Dead could have ever dreamed up. All of which is to say, it may take an act of God to keep me from seeing Snarky Puppy again when the whole gang returns to L.A. for the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in June.

You can check out videos and photos below of Snarky Puppy’s Orpheum performance, courtesy of Brandon Weil.