The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast celebrates the magic of live music through sharing personal stories. Each week, our guests will share their stories of different shows that were memorable and meaningful to them. We’ll also have concert reviews and conversations with musicians and crew members who put on those live shows. By sharing their stories, we hope to engage you - our audience - to relive your live music memories also. So please join us every week as we explore the transformative power of live music that makes attending concerts not just entertaining, but essential. This is The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast, where every concert tells a story.
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
Episode 021 - Black Pumas Concert Review
This week, I’m reviewing the Black Pumas show at The Capitol Theater on August 1st, 2024. The show delivered some moments I’ve honestly never seen before, and they revolved around the singer’s interactions with the audience. A good show musically was elevated by Eric Burton’s drive to connect with all of us in new and creative ways, as well as an amazing light show.
Whether you're a die-hard fan or just discovering the Black Pumas, this episode promises to transport you to the front row of one of the most unique rock and soul concerts of the year, and I’ll tell you all about it, this week on The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!
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Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, alex Gad, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see Black Pumas at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, new York, last week, and I saw some things that I had never seen before at a rock concert, which I'm looking forward to sharing with you. So stick around for my Black Pumas concert review this week on the Rock and Roll Show podcast Podcasts. Unlike other bands that I've reviewed so far, black Pumas are a newer band and not everyone knows who they are. They released their first self-titled album in 2019 and had a big hit almost immediately with their second single, colors. I first heard that track on Sirius' the Spectrum channel, which mixes classic rock and newer rock music, and I really liked it. It was an interesting combination of almost folk music and soul music, and I really liked it. It was an interesting combination of almost folk music and soul music, and I wanted to hear more. I found out that they had released a previous single called Black Moon Rising in 2018, which was the year that they formed.
Speaker 1:The band is two main guys. The singer, whose name is Eric Burton, was a busker in LA that moved to Austin in 2017, where he connected with a guy named Adrian Quesada who had already won Grammy awards and was writing and producing new music that was more in the rock and roll, r&b soul vein, and he was looking for a singer. So they got together through a friend in 2018, recorded the album Black Pumas and almost immediately had the hit Colors. Recorded the album Black Pumas and almost immediately had the hit Colors. Now Eric Burton is a hell of a singer. He has great range, a rich tone and a real lived-in quality to his voice. He never sounds like he's straining, even when he's singing way up high. Apparently, it didn't take long for the two of them to recognize they had something going on. So they released that first record, black Pumas, which got them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and then the pandemic hit and I lost track of them. Now, in 2023, last year, they released their second album, chronicles of a Diamond, continuing their development as a band that now Rolling Stone was labeling as a psychedelic soul band. They released a few decent singles, including the lead track, more Than a Love Song, but none of them reached the level of excellence of colors.
Speaker 1:But I was intrigued. So earlier this summer, when I was speaking with Carl King for episode 16 of this podcast, which you should definitely check out. He mentioned that he had seen the Black Pumas and that revitalized my interest in them. So when I saw that they had a date booked nearby at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, I bought a ticket and headed over to the show Ahead of time. I didn't check their set list, which I usually do, but I wanted to have the experience fresh. So I really didn't know what to expect beyond knowing the few songs that I had heard and the few live videos I had seen when I was looking into them for Carl's episode last month.
Speaker 1:Once the lights went down, the first thing that was apparent is that they are way into dry ice. The smoke from the dry ice filled the entire theater. It was a lot, but they cut it back, waited for the smoke to dissipate a bit and then hit the lights. When they finally turned the stage lights on, they had a great backdrop, illuminated of their current album cover the two pumas face to face with their canine teeth, lit up in an array of led lights. And yes, I did check. Cats do have canine teeth, just like humans do, even though neither of us are dogs. The sound was excellent, which is always nice Good on the Capitol Theater.
Speaker 1:The band opened with the song Fire, which was the follow-up single to Colors from their first record. The only other song that I knew was really good went over nicely Good way to open up. The third song was called Know you Better, and it was a highlight because of the first thing that happened that I had never seen before. Eric jumped off the stage, climbed over the security barrier between the stage and the crowd on the floor and started to literally get to know the audience better. He wandered through the crowd singing, introducing himself to people, asking their names. He started a conga line and they weave their way through the entire floor before he then jumped back on stage. It was a great move. It matched the lyrics of the song and the audience loved it. Now, back on stage, eric led the band through the rest of the set list, most of which I wasn't familiar with, but I enjoyed the music. All sounds somewhat similar. No one song really stood out as markedly better than the others, but it all sounded good and Eric's voice was really impressive, as was the music the band was laying down. Now the second thing that I had never seen before happened about midway through the set when the band played that single that I mentioned More Than a Love Song from the current record.
Speaker 1:The outro of the song is a call and response of the words fly together. Where Eric sings it first, the backup singers respond. Eric leaned over the railing again, handed the microphone to a young guy up front, asked him his name and asked him to lead the audience in that call and response, and then he climbed back on stage and started dancing. While this guy did a decent job of it, he seemed to lose steam after about 12 or 14 times of saying fly together and asking the audience to respond. So Eric got wind of that, jumped back down, got the mic from him and, instead of wrapping it up, took the mic to another guy off to the right and a guy named Josh, and asked him to do the same thing. Now Josh took it to another level. He did the fly together every time. On time he started changing the melody to this simple two-word phrase. After about two or three minutes of it, eric came, took the mic back up and wrapped up the song. He took time to compliment Josh by name for his thoughtful take on singing fly together. It was so impressive to me that a he not only asked both guys names but remembered them and thanked them afterwards but, more importantly, that he had established a trust with the audience where he just gave the microphone to two audience members and walked away.
Speaker 1:I have never seen that before. I've seen bands give audience members the microphone but they hold it. The artist will hold it and the audience will sing. And we've seen things where a band has an audience member come up on stage and play guitar or help them sing, but the band is always in control of the microphone. Eric Burton just handed control of the show essentially over to these kids, these strangers in the audience, and established a level of trust between the band and the audience that you very rarely get, and I was impressed, Loved it. I didn't even record any of it because I was so caught up in the moment. And I've looked and I haven't seen that he does that every night. I've seen this happen, where he sings in the audience, but I've never seen him give the microphone over. That was really a feeling that he and the audience we were sharing and it was impressive, really enjoyed that. So then the main set wrapped up with their 14th song, which was their hit Colors.
Speaker 2:Take a listen is I For that amount? I'd tell it to mount, mount, mount and hold it tight With all my favorite colors. Yes, sir, all my favorite colors. I know my sisters and my brothers. She don't like my brother. She'll rock my brother On my merry mother.
Speaker 1:The song is great, really went over well and is one that if you haven't heard before, please give it a listen, put it on a playlist and play it. It's a good one. Now, the third thing that I hadn't ever seen happened at the start of the encore. The lights were off. The crowd was cheering for the band to come back on. A spotlight went on and pointed down where Eric Burton should have been. He wasn't there. The light suddenly and dramatically shot upwards into the balcony where I was sitting, where I was sitting, and off to the right in one of the balcony boxes, there was Eric Burton with an acoustic guitar, a mic stand, one security guy, and he jumped into a cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car, which the band does every night.
Speaker 2:And if you know this one, feel free.
Speaker 1:It sounded great. Again, a third effort for Eric to really connect with the audience and break down barriers. He wrapped that up. The band reemerged. They did their last song, which was a track called Rock and Roll from the new album. The stage lighting was excellent, as it had been all night, and I'll show you that was it. Black Pumas were gone.
Speaker 1:So here are my takeaways. Number one the band is really good. Tight, soulful, fluid, a really good live band. Number two for a band that's only recorded 20 songs across two albums, it gives them a challenge to fill a two-hour headlighting set. In this case it was about an hour and 50 minutes. Now the band played 15 of their average song duration for the remainder of the set was about eight minutes per song and again, they've only recorded one song that's more than five minutes long. So there was a lot of vamping and if you go see them, be prepared for that. But it worked. It fit their vibe. It wasn't too monotonous. I'd like to see how their shows progress, with more material to choose from in the future, but it was a really good fun show. Third takeaway the light show was amazing. Whomever was doing the lights was super impressive, even if there was a little too much infatuation with firing off strobe light effects at times. I took some still shots which I'm showing you now because the lighting was so good.
Speaker 1:Number four Eric Burton is an amazing singer. You should seek out Black Pumas just to hear him sing. If not, at least check it out on YouTube. Number five more than just a singer, he's so comfortable on stage in front of an audience as much as any performer I've seen. As I mentioned previously, he has a real need to connect with the audience and break down barriers between them and him and the band as much as any performer I've seen. As I mentioned previously, he has a real need to connect with the audience and break down barriers between them and him and the band as much as he can. He engaged the audience in almost every song while continuing to sing, never in an annoying way or in a pandering way. It just seemed genuine and clearly his busking experience pays off for him as a live performer. Finally, I'd like to see them again on their next tour, as I mentioned, and see how their performance progresses, and I encourage you to go see them if you can, starting in September. They're in the Midwest, then they go down to the Southeast and they wrap up their tour in California and LA at the end of September. They play Ohana Festival with another band I really like Turnpike Troubadours, on September 28th, so check them out if you can.
Speaker 1:And that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode. Well, that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode. And please tell your friends. Also a reminder that I'm going to release a playlist, as we do for every episode. Look for the Rock and Roll Show podcast playlist on Spotify every week. This week it'll feature the songs that were in the set list, so check that out. And then, of course, we want to know what you think. Please leave us a comment and we'll respond to every one of them. The Rock and Roll Show podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, alex Gad, and until next time, remember that life is short, so get those consequences. We'll see you next time.