Thundercat's bass mastery turns HISTORY Ottawa into a playground for sound and groove

Thundercat brought his Distracted AF Tour to HISTORY Ottawa on Wednesday night, and the result was the kind of show where you spend half the evening grinning and the other half wondering how one person can do that much with a bass guitar.

The musician—Stephen Bruner, operating under his stage name—seems to run on a different frequency than most. His music slides between jazz, funk, R&B and psychedelic soul, landing in spaces that don't quite have names yet. What makes the performance work isn't just technical prowess, though the bass playing is undeniably ridiculous. It's the looseness and humour underneath. His playing sounded impossibly intricate one second and effortlessly funky the next—the kind of musicianship that makes you want to cheer and immediately reconsider every hobby you've ever attempted.

But virtuosity without playfulness would just be showing off. Thundercat made it clear he wasn't interested in taking the regular path to the chorus. Instead, he and his band would switch gears mid-song and jam for several minutes, letting grooves wander wherever they wanted to go. The music felt meticulously crafted without ever feeling like homework.

The crowd matched his energy all night—dancing, shredding imaginary air basses, giving their best bass faces. You didn't need to be a jazz nerd or a fusion fanatic to appreciate what was happening. The technical skill was there to marvel at, sure, but you could also just let the music wash over you and feel the groove take hold.

Thundercat remains a gloriously singular musical force: equal parts virtuoso, funk scientist, and lovable sonic oddball.