written by Chris Familton

The opening set in the surrounds of Raval’s lush lounge bar was a last minute addition in the form of the Boom! Bap! Pow!’s bass player – Clint Bracknell – playing a solo set on acoustic guitar. Bracknell possesses one hell of a voice with deep, rich tones akin to Ray LaMontagne as well as being a sweet guitarist. It was an effortless and damn impressive performance of folk, soul and country-tinged originals – including one written that afternoon to flesh out the set – and a couple of covers in the form of Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright and Phil Phillips via Robert Plant’s Sea Of Love.

Catherine Traicos continued the americana roots vibe with her softly swinging sound that swung from Mazzy Star haze and shimmer to upbeat country-flecked torch songs. She’s assembled a band that do justice to her songs without drawing attention away from her voice and songs though lacking was enough variation in mood to really capture the audience’s attention across her whole set.

Boom! Bap! Pow! certainly knew how to draw the punters into their soul/funk world and though the turnout was fairly low they had half the room dancing by the end of their first song. Too often acts like this sink sadly into slavish retro-isms, coming off as a covers band even though their songs are their own. In the case of Boom! Bap! Pow! they rose above those accusations with an infectious and all too short set that covered a wide spectrum of Motown inspired doo-wop, soul and funk that was vacuum-packed tight. The ghosts of 60s girl groups, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Temptations and James Brown drifted across songs like My World and Science – songs that sounded like instant classics waiting to be treated as such in a just world.

Singer Novac Bull – who knows how to sing to the girls and seduce the boys – was a bundle of fun topped off with a voice that could holler and scream and then pulls things right back into an aching, bluesy, soul ballad. Behind her the band that nailed everything they attempted with perfectly placed and executed solos as well as a healthy sideline in between-song banter.  A near complete audio-visual package then… and thankfully without a whiff of The Commitments in sight.

this review first appeared in Drum Media