This event was held as a release party for PAPA’s fantastic debut EP A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. Release ‘parties’ are different to traditional parties because the host (on this occasion PAPA) doesn’t mingle with their guests, but rather draws a line between themselves as performers and everyone else as spectators. This was the case with PAPA of course, but it seemed throughout their performance they tried to break this barrier as often as possible by interacting with the crowd on a personal level, and of course there was plenty of time for traditional social interaction after their performance was over.
Playing before PAPA was another LA band, Races. Having seen and written about Races so recently, I thought it might be difficult to write a band with such a small catalogue again so soon, but I was proven wrong. The thing that struck me most about Races’ performance on this occasion was how versatile they are in sound. They have the grandiose anthem, the floor-stomping rocker, the slow-builder and, of course, the one about “children and methamphetamine” (because every band has to have one). If there’s one complaint to be had about Races’ repertoire, it’s that they don’t have any downers. All their songs are upbeat and vibrant (even the one about meth!) – but that’s no complaint at all really. And it’s no surprise that these are the type of songs that they write since every single member radiates excitement and passion as they play, be it through the vocals of Wade Ryff, the auxiliary percussion of Devon Lee, the bouncy happiness of bassist Oliver Hild and guitarist Garth Herberg or any of the various other activities going on onstage at any given moment. During a Races performance you can look anywhere onstage to see something interesting and enlivening going on. In fact, so much is going on that not one, or even two, performances are enough to take it all in. I guess I’ll have to go see them again, and I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to do so in the near future.
A Good Woman Is Hard To Find is a relatively relaxing listen, so I thought I’d be in for a fairly soft headline set – but I was totally wrong. From the start PAPA (a four-piece band led by Darren Weiss on drums) set out to create as lively and loud an atmosphere as they could. Starting with a bit of noise, primarily coming from Weiss pounding his crash cymbal to death was one sure fire way to get the crowd alert. A Good Woman Is Hard To Find only features five tracks, but PAPA played many more than that on this occasion, giving us hints that further releases may not be too far away.
Throughout the set every member looked as contented as can be while playing, each acting out their own happiness in the way that they moved while playing. Just from the look on bassist Daniel Pressant’s face you could tell that he was thinking something along the lines of “Oh yeah, this sounds good.” PAPA saved their big three for last, and made them even bigger by bringing in an additional guitarist to play acoustic for them. Starting the power trio was “Ain’t It So,” with its melodic guitar line so infectious that it seems to infect your bones and make your legs move. Next up was the uber-catchy “I Am The Lion King,” and for the big finale they played EP finisher “Song For Mike Gigliotti” which saw them bringing in a trumpet player for the big crescendo. You certainly can’t say that PAPA don’t have big ideas, and I’m sure we’ll see them going forward.
Right before the final blow out Weiss got out from behind his drumkit and walked around the edge of the stage wildly delivering high-5s and high-10s to every person within reach, and everyone who could get a touch of the leading man strained to do so. In an interview with Proxart Weiss admitted that he felt that while PAPA was at heart a New York band, he prefers Los Angeles because their music is “more welcome there”; and on this showing you have to say that he’s absolutely right.
