[ATTENDED: January 18, 2024] Black Pumas
My wife and I really liked the first Black Pumas album a lot. I’m not sure why we didn’t go see them when they played Philly in 2019 (at the Foundry–he was probably in the audience the whole time!).
When this tour was announced, I was shocked at the price of tickets. I later found out that this was one of the first times Ticketmaster listed the price WITH FEES, so the outrageous price was what you’d pay after the sticker shock, but with the sticker shock up front. I resisted getting tickets even though we both wanted to go. And then Live Nation sent a code for $20 off tickets and boom, we were in.
And then the weather discouraged us from going. It was COLD, and icy and about to snow, and neither of us really felt like going out. But we did. And boy was it worth it.
Neither of us knows the new album all that well, but since they only have two albums out there was no reason they wouldn’t play most of the debut as well. Which they did (7 from the debut and 9 from the new).
And the show was stellar right from the start. From the cool backdrop (which not only featured the pumas on that poster (right), but it also featured the twinkling teeth and eyes. And the lights were incredible.
The band came out with singer Eric Burton out front and guitarist Adrian Quesada to the right. The rest of the band surrounded them–bass, drums, keys and tow backing singers.
They opened with a song from their debut and then more or less went back and forth between a new song and an old one.
The new album has a few more mellow songs, and they were placed properly to give the band and the audience some breathing room in between dancing.
The most impressive part of the show was, without a doubt, Eric Burton’s voice. His voice is amazing on record, but it was even better live. It soared and flew, whispered and screamed. He hit high notes with ease and sounded enormous throughout the set.
Even crazier, during Know You Better, Burton leaped off the stage into the crowd–after parting the crowd, he jumped feet first off the stage, soaring through the air and landed on his feet. He then sang the rest of the song from the audience with people crowding around him.
It was amazing hearing him sing “Black Moon Rising” and doing those soft but powerful “ow”s that come after each line.
“Ice Cream” sounded fantastic live and everyone was dancing by then. “OCT 33” was really powerful and “Mrs. Postman” was more fun than the recorded version.
Quesada didn’t say anything, and he didn’t do a lot of soloing, but when he did, his guitar sounded fantastic.
Burton jumped down to the front of the crowd later in the set and sang with the front row folks. He also handed someone the setlist before the show was even over.
We sang along, we danced, we raised our hands, we clapped. It was a full experience.
And then they started “Colors” the big hit. A woman behind me shouted “this is my song” and everyone around her no doubt thought, “no, everyone loves this song, duh.” Despite her, the song sounded fantastic. So big, so powerful. Everyone’s voices rising along.
The only disappointment for the night was the two guys in front of us. I knew they were trouble when Digable Planets came on and I suggested we should move from them, but a nice gentleman next to us sort of encouraged us to get in front of him and it was hard to say no.
Fortunately for me, their drunken idiocy was far enough from me that it didn’t really impact me. But my poor wife was stuck in their wake (in fairness I did ask if she wanted to move on a few occasions and she said no). For two guys who loved the band as much as they did, they were sure disrespectful–talking loudly, leaving for drinks every three songs and then even falling on the floor. Ooph.
I had seen earlier that Black Pumas had been playing 16 songs, so I thought we might get two encores. I couldn’t think of any other songs I wanted to hear and the came out and played Hello from the new album.
I always think that encores should be fan favorites–big rockers to get everyone singing along (like Colors). But that seems to be changing of late. Hello is a mellow song that is quite lovely. They followed it with Rock and Roll, the final song on the new album. The song is kind of simple, but boy they built on the repetition in the song until it sounded massive.
This was supposed to be my first show of the year until The Musical Box cropped up on my radar. But since that show was a) a cover band and b) seated, I feel like this was really my first real show of the year. And it was a doozy. So glad we went!
- Fire ♠
- Gemini Sun ◊
- Know You Better ♠
- Black Moon Rising ♠
- Sauvignon ◊
- Ice Cream (Pay Phone) ◊
- Angel ◊
- More Than a Love Song ◊
- Confines ♠
- OCT 33 ♠
- Mrs. Postman ◊
- Stay Gold ♠
- Chronicles of a Diamond ◊
- Colors ♠
encore
- Hello ◊
- Rock and Roll ◊
♠ Black Pumas (2019)
◊ Chronicles of a Diamond (2023)
no: ♠ Old Man, Touch the Sky, Sweet Conversations
no: ◊ Tomorrow
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I didn’t know who John Harvie was before this set. He seemed like a slightly out of place artist since everyone else was female (token male on the tour perhaps?). Although he was more of an odd presence because his songs are mega-emo rather than pop punky.
I Just Read About That... 