Palma Louca at Little Buildings, Newcastle

Your new favourite Indie band.

Palma Louca gives you an amalgamation of indie references from the early 2000s; including Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, and Bombay Bicycle Club. When listening to their popular recorded tracks, they have a very accessible sound that meets the commercial indie market, with enough contrasting textures to keep you interested. If I were only reviewing their recorded work I could easily pass them off as just another indie band that are only meant to be played during summer time. However, seeing this band perform live is a completely different story.

When watching the band perform at Little Buildings in Newcastle, I was completely taken by the strength and layered howls of their music. Their sound seemed to lift the room and held a sense of energy that vibrated through the space. The lead singer in particular had a fantastic quality to his voice, comparable to Yannis Phillppakis from Fouls. He had great control and projection in his belts and a seamless transition from chest to head voice. There was something haunting and entrancing about his singing.

Their performance style was very mellow, but I believe this can be completely overlooked as their music’s textured layers held such clarity.

It was evident that all of the band members are committed to creating high quality music and sound, which is very commendable as small scale bands can sometimes place too much attention to the energy and aesthetics of their performances that they lose sight of the former.

Lyrically the songs are simplistic, but honest, and to quote Jake Milburn, who goes by “Rascal MC” from the Huddersfield band Dead Wax, “lyrics don’t have to be good, but they do have to be honest.”. I think there is a middle ground to be met here. Neither honesty or technique will always equate to “good” lyrics, but in the case of Palma Louca, the simplistic lyrics are sprung with emotion due to their pairing of the lead vocalists’s singing and the raging atmospheric music the band creates.

If you like any of the aforementioned bands from the early 2000s, certainly give them a listen, but if you are the type to turn your nose up at the mentions of early noughties indie, then I would say to wait and see Palma Louca play live. Their performance harmoniously fills gigs venues much like a church choir, Palma Louca are certainly a musical talent that will seamlessly move through the U.K. indie scene.