“Our first show here — at the Turf Club [in 2018] — was off the chain,” frontman Eric Burton of Black Pumas told the Twin Cities audience shortly after stepping onstage Wednesday night in Minneapolis. “This place elevates our music to another dimension.”

Playing outdoors at Surly Festival Field, Black Pumas proceeded to do exactly what Burton described.

Opening their set with the song “Fire,” the band’s robust sound poured out over the audience, accompanied by a swirl of light and fog. The upstage scrim featuring the Black Pumas’ iconic mirrored puma faces burst to life through illuminated eyes and teeth. It resembled the entrance to a funhouse, visually echoing Burton’s words of entering a new dimension. Over 90 minutes, this stunning visual display continued to morph and fascinate as Black Pumas delivered a nearly nonstop stream of their irresistible brand of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B.

A resplendent half-moon hung over Minneapolis, adding further set dressing to songs like “Black Moon Rising,” or to “Little Angel” as Burton crooned the lyric, “In the sea of the evening / As the moon comes to play…”

Dreamy and transporting as the music was, Burton kept engaging with the audience throughout the show. He slyly worked the name “Minneapolis” into song lyrics, directed handclaps, and led choreography, sing-alongs, and calls-and-responses. During “Know You Better,” Burton invited everyone in the audience to turn to the person on their right and on their left to ask each person’s favorite color, not only reflecting the song’s lyrics but also, as Burton put it, to build “just a little bit of community.”

It helped that there was a powerful communal feeling already in place. Burton asked the crowd, “Who’s been with us since the first album?” resulting in a collective whoop as a forest of arms filled the air. Taking in this response from the Minneapolis audience, Burton mused, “This feels like a second home.”

(Overheard before the show, a Black Pumas fan who had traveled to Texas to see the band compared notes and T-shirts with a couple who had traveled to Amsterdam for a Black Pumas concert.)

Although Burton is every bit the frontman, Black Pumas comprise a hardworking roster of musicians. The band Wednesday evening included Black Pumas cofounder and creative partner Adrian Quesada on guitar; backing vocalists Angela Miller and Lauren Cervantes; keyboardist JaRon Marshall; bassist Brendan Bond; drummer Stephen Bidwell; and auxiliary percussionist and backing vocalist Terin Ector. Pausing only when they could simply to hydrate between songs, this band poured their whole selves into the performance.

If Black Pumas had just called it a night after concluding their main set with a passionate rendition of “Colors” (off their 2019 self-titled debut album), it’s hard to imagine anyone at Surly would have gone home disappointed. But after a few minutes of nonstop cheering and applause, Burton returned to stage to perform a solo cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” In a particularly poignant moment, after Burton sang the lyrics, “I said, ‘Somebody's got to take care of him’ / So I quit school and that's what I did,” he breathed softly an interstitial remark, “I know the feeling … I know the feeling.” As a student, Burton left college in New Mexico to return to California to take care of his mother as she faced health issues.

Opening Wednesday’s show was Chicago rapper and activist Ric Wilson, who got the audience moving to his melodic, jazz-inflected brand of hip-hop. Foreshadowing Burton’s penchant for interaction, Wilson interfaced by looking out into the crowd, constantly making eye contact with people, leading clapping and dancing, and at one point even raising his glass and saying, “Hey Minnesota, let’s give a toast to Tim Walz!” Songs by Wilson that connected particularly well with the audience included “Hang Loose,” “Move Like This,” and “Sinner,” the latter anchored by a reggae beat.

Black Pumas concluded their encore and their show with an extended, jam version of “Rock and Roll,” the final track on 2023’s Chronicles of a Diamond. Near the song’s conclusion, Burton leaped over the barrier and ran up the center of the audience giving high-fives and never ceasing from singing the “Rock and Roll” refrain. He returned to stage for a few more stanzas and dance moves, his golden dreadlocks whipping joyously, then casually strode offstage, leaving the band to soak in the applause as they played the final measures of the song.

On a visit to The Current earlier Wednesday, Eric Burton told host Jessica Paxton, “Creating and performing is what I absolutely love to do.” For anyone in attendance at Surly Festival Field on Wednesday night, Burton and his bandmates brought those words to abundant life.

Black Pumas

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Ric Wilson

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Black Pumas Set List

Fire

Black Cat

Gemini Sun

I'm Ready

Know You Better

Black Moon Rising

Angel

Old Man

Ice Cream (Pay Phone)

Tomorrow

More Than A Love Song

Oct 33

Colors

Encore

Fast Car (Tracy Chapman cover; Eric Burton solo)

Rock and Roll