Bringing people 'together': SNACKTIME lands opening slot for Portugal. The Man tour, readies first time performing in ABQ

Sam Gellerstein is unwinding after playing his last set on the Eric Andre/Impractical Jokers cruise.

“Life is wild,” he says. “We’re hanging with them, drinking tequila sodas and doing karaoke.”

Gellerstein and his band SNACKTIME don’t have too long to rest, as they will get ready to head on tour to open for Portugal. The Man.

The tour is slated to make a stop in Albuquerque at Sunshine Theater on Tuesday, Feb. 6. It will be the first time SNACKTIME has performed in the state.

The seven-piece band formed in Philadelphia during the height of the pandemic. The members began playing free shows at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.

Their sets quickly became a symbol of positivity and lockdown release, while showcasing the richness of their city’s musical history and community.

This progressed to sold-out headlining shows, curation of neighborhood festivals, multiple appearances at Philadelphia 76ers halftime shows, and slots at major music festivals.

The band is made up of Gellerstein, Yesseh Furaha-Ali, Austin Marlow, Larry Monroe Jr., Eric Sherman, Michael Spearman and Ben Stocker.

Gellerstein is a co-founder of the band.

He says the past couple of years have been “absolutely insane.”

“They have been blurring together for some time, but hitting some landmarks and peaks has felt awesome,” he says.

With seven members in the band, the writing process would seem like it could be impossible.

Gellerstein says it’s an awesome process.

“Sometimes one or sometimes a few of us will come in with a fully fleshed out idea, or sometimes it’s a sketch, but regardless of the primary writer or writers of the song, every member of the band’s fingerprints are on the song,” he says.

This also extends to the band’s editing process – which sees about four revisions before the band collectively settles on a version.

“(Our editing process) is extremely difficult,” he says. “As we’ve been working with the amazing (producer) Will Yip, he’s been helping us trim the fat on a lot of our songs, and come with a lean, strong composition, led by a hook and not by extraneous ideas.”

SNACKTIME recently released the tracks “Together” and “I Don’t Give a Damn.”

“(On ‘Together’), Mike came over to my apartment one day and showed me a loose arrangement of the song,” he explains. “A couple of us worked on it for the afternoon and came up with lyrics and some interlude sections. I think we knew from the time we wrote it that it had something special about it.”

Gellerstein says for the first couple of years, the band never wrote any setlists, often opting for communication with hand signs on the go.

He says it was a good way of communicating because each member knew where they were going.

“However, now we are really locking into a solid 30/45/60/90-minute version of the set to always make sure we can give the best version of ourselves in every situation,” he says. “We’ve remained the ‘people-centric’ band we’ve always been. Our songs are shorter now, we all play more than one instrument on stage now. But mostly we have learned how to work with each other in a healthy, productive manner.”

The stop in Albuquerque will be the band’s first and Gellerstein is excited about it.

He and Stocker are also the tour managers and making sure all goes well on the road.

“We are going to come to every new city with a message of luv, funk, dance and unity,” he says. “I also really wanna go to a natural spring and relax.”