I’ve seen Norway’s raucous math rockers Pom Poko six or seven times now but apart from a wondrous show at the Øya Festival in Oslo in 2019 when they were joined on stage by some of their ‘cartoon characters’, the grotesque creatures from the weird Japanese Studio Ghibli animation from which they take their band’s name, it’s always been in a small venue like The Castle, the Deaf Institute and Academy 3 in Manchester and The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.
In fact the first time ever was during the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg in 2018, when they played the first of their two gigs there in the fan merchandise shop of St Pauli FC, whose ground is just behind Europe’s naughtiest road. Behind. Where else?
Apart from the sheer inanity of that gig I was amazed how they captured the attention of the folk that had just popped in to buy a shirt or scarf before the big match against Düsseldorf the following day. One that suddenly faded into insignificance.
However, I had never seen them in a big venue and having watched n top artists and bands in Manchester’s most celebrated conversion (from a long abandoned church right in the centre of the city) it’s the sort of place I always knew they belonged even if they were in a supporting capacity tonight (to American indie rockers Beach Bunny).
I’ve been effusive with my praise of Pom Poko in the past, once describing them as the most dynamic band you could hope to hear and see anywhere. The tour bus this time out was provided by Bison and there was only one wild ox on stage tonight.
But it’s time to take a considered, more measured view of a quartet that’s been on the scene for eight years now, having graduated from a music university that could have guaranteed them jobs for life in orchestras.
It was a short set of eight songs and it could easily have added another one or two as Beach Bunny seemed to have more than enough time to set up and have a three course dinner before they came on.
The set was as dynamic as ever although front woman Ragnhild appeared a little less energetic than I remember. Dressed in the by now obligatory knobbly knees competition shorts, Martin Tonne (guitar), Jonas Krøvel (bass) and Ola Djupvik (drums) can and do play at lightning speed. During the closing ‘Crazy Energy Night’ their hands collectively were a blur.
But here is where I start to be a little concerned. Five or so years ago British BBC 6 Radio DJs were queuing up to own Pom Poko. They were unlike anything to come out of Europe before, never mind Norway, those DJs not shy to latch on to and publicly state that; their quick fire math rock setting new standards for musical wizardry.
But tonight it didn’t really gel with an audience that was fundamentally there to see a different sort of band altogether. There was a hardcore of Pom Poko fans in the stalls including Manchester’s and Liverpool’s ubiquitous Norwegian student crowd but the majority in the mezzanine were happy to spend their time fingering their phones and taking pictures of each other, offering polite applause when the time came.
Part of the reason is that Pom Poko was too loud. Ok, loud goes with jazzy post-punk – but not 100dB.
Why? Because Pom Poko’s music is heavily nuanced for all its violence (Djupvik is very much in the John Bonham/Keith Moon/Jukka Nevalainen mould with the speed and deftness of a Karen Carpenter; Tonne a technocratic Pete Townsend; and Krøvel John Entwistle or Ronnie Wood) but those shades and tones were lost in a cacophony of sound.
It took me a few seconds even to place ‘Crazy Energy Night’ and ‘Follow the Lights’ when they kicked off. You could barely pick them out of a nuclear explosion.
Secondly because the majority of the crowd was there to watch headliner Beach Bunny, a band whose simple tunes are instantly recognisable. Some of their followers, mainly teens and 20-somethings, wore illuminated bunny ears or ‘I heart BB’ t-shirts or looked like they’d just come from the beach; in some cases all three.
They are out of Chicago but have LA vibes. The beaches are better there. I could imagine them opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the day. Guitarist, vocalist and front woman Lili Trifilio is easy on the eye (I almost said eye candy – damn it, I will) and has a nice line in marching band majorette high kicks.
Yes they rock, but compared to PP they are pedestrian, soft and fuzzy, and I’m not in the least bit surprised that most of their fans appear to be teenage girls, with boy/girlfriend or Dad in tow.
But most significantly they have tunes. They aren’t the most memorable but they are recognisable. With all due respect to Pom Poko, melody isn’t really what they do. They are the musical equivalent of a Ninja Warrior movie, WWE Wrestling, a Cruise Missile or Grand Theft Auto.
It may seem a little odd that PP opened for BB rather than the other way around. Technically, it is like Manchester City opening for Accrington Stanley. But outside of that narrow band of dedicated musical perfectionists and aficionados that follow Pom Poko and the radio jocks that cater to them, Beach Bunny is more likely to score with an audience more attuned to the mainstream.
And it is for all these reasons that I hope Pom Poko might step back now and revisit what they do unless they’re happy to slog around small clubs. They’ve impressed everyone they needed to with their technical prowess and odd time signatures many times over but they aren’t going to play the stages they deserve to with music that is anything but for the masses.
They did start to do that with the ‘This is our house’ EPin 2022 and the title track from their most recent album ‘Champion’ was possibly the closest they’ve come to a ballad.
They can do it. I have no doubt about that. It’s a matter of will. And of how much they really, really want to play the London Palladium.
‘Crazy Energy Night’ and ‘My Family’ in Oslo. Both were on the set list in Manchester.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pompokounofficial
X: https://twitter.com/pompokotheband
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pompokounofficial/
