Finding answers about the modern mind at a Pom Poko concert
For the last couple of years, the Pom Poko track ‘Like a Lady’ has been stuck in my head. It has, to be honest, plagued me. At every turn – football matches, zoom calls, the supermarket – I’m never far from belting out “Like a lady, like a lady”, and I haven’t even deciphered all the lyrics yet. Not long back, this sent me down an investigative rabbit hole exploring what I termed a person’s ‘default song’, whereby I spoke to psychologists and anthropologists in search of answers about why certain songs stick in our heads.
My journey into default songs, ultimately, only raised more questions. But perhaps I found a semblance of an answer watching the band play live at The Cluny in Newcastle last night. It’s quite simple: I like the song, and beyond that, I identify with it. Given the content and subject matter, I can’t be sure why that is the case at this present juncture, but to use the horrid parlance of our times, I’m receptive to the ‘vibe’ that Pom Poko emanate. And based on the sea of nodding heads that surrounded me, I am not alone.
The Norwegian art-rock outfit from Oslo are explosive and invigorating, but also somehow cosy. This cosiness stretches beyond the interesting soft-to-heavy modalities they oscillate between in their dynamic tracks—it is embedded in their collective outlook and beaming smiles, offering a warm embrace to listeners either crammed into The Cluny on a drizzly autumn night or at home blasting their latest belting album, Champion.
The title track is a pertinent place to picnic for a while regarding their live set. Presently stationed somewhere near the middle, the beauteous hit offers a slice of melodic respite. By rights, it belongs to a different gig to the noise rock finale soon to come. However, it sits amid anthemic heaviness so seamlessly that you barely notice the change of pace.
It is this that makes Pom Poko a perfectly modern band—not only is there not much out there that sounds anything like them – indicative of their originality – but their rise and fall of wild exultancy to relaxed reverie is pretty much what the modern human wants amid this chaotic world. You can cut loose at the Pom Poko gig, and then you can sustain your energy for another gruelling shift at the office with a gentle, joyous head bob.
As Dr Concetta Tomaino, the executive director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, told me on my initial journey into why certain songs and artists stick: “You know how the images in dreams are really metaphors for something else? These songs that come to mind spontaneously usually pop up because there is either an emotional or some other significance to them. They don’t just pop up for nothing. Something in your brain in the back of your mind is processing something, and it goes, ‘Boom, there’s an association with that song’. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have a reason for popping up.”
Well, as Pom Poko get bigger and bigger with each new revered release, it would seem that people are finding subconscious connections with them as artists. The natural sincerity of their work, born with smiling defiance, hits the psyche like a hug and a beer after a weary day. The need for cosy comfort and escapist exultancy that is sweetly exacted in their sound is a boon for the worker bee.
So, as I watched this strange little band blasting out ‘Like a Lady’ with great gusto, glee and paradoxical gentleness, I grew to know myself a little better. The band are themselves, and in being just that, they hit upon a universal hug. As the promoter, the mighty Wandering Oak, told me upon entry, “They’ve just got such an infectious vibe”. Perhaps that’s scientifically true. It’s not a line that’ll go on their tour poster but:’ Pom Poko are the inverse benediction of Covid-19, catchy, warmly invigorating, and they’ll change your life’.
