Pumarosa, Academy 3. 21st November 2019

So the other night it was Steve Lamacq turning me on to Fontaines DC. Tonight it’s Jools Holland doing the honours. He’s not really my cup of tea and I tend forward through the excruciating interviews, but he has some great bands on. One a few years back was Pumarosa. I watched and was spell bound, but then couldn’t make a date they played locally and even managed to miss them at Glastonbury. Their debut album ‘The Witch’ is fantastic and got played endlessly in our house. I really should’ve tried harder to catch them on that album, as the new album has changed their sound quite drastically in places and I’m sad to say not really for the better. The guitars are turned down or off and replaced with some pretty dancey 90s beats, like a slightly lofi Garbage. So it’s with some trepidation that I turn up to Academy 3 tonight. I do love this room though, I’ve seen some cracking sets here, like Raveonettes, The Kills, Echobelly and of course the mighty Art Brut, but there’s not nearly enough people in here to fill it and as a warm up track including the M/A/R/R/S classic ‘Pump Up The Volume’ bounces out the speakers, I count around 150 people. Pumarosa are great though. Whilst I don’t begrudge their change of direction, not enough bands try new things, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to hear the older songs. Straight out of the gates fears are allayed, ironically with a new track that sounds awesome, Isabel Munoz-Newsome’s vocals sweeping wonderfully, despite a small gremlin that mutes the mic for a few seconds. It’s a helluva start and then the guitars come out and I’m in heaven! The mix of dark from the first LP and driving from the second works remarkably well, all tied together with the quite staggeringly ethereal vocals. It’s not all perfect, there’s a few songs that don’t land for me, but the heads keep bobbing and the crowd seem really into it as some of the dancier stuff builds and builds to blissful crescendos. It’s a massive sound that deserves a bigger room and much bigger audiences. After an hour they’re done and I’m left wanting more... much much more, an hour with this band just isn’t enough. I know I’m greedy but after such a long wait I could’ve watched, sang and danced all night.