St. Paul and the Broken Bones have recently garnered a lot of good press and fans to go with it following the release of “Young Sick Camelia” which slightly downplays their signature white soul and funk roots for a slightly more introspective set of songs. For their live show, they still get funky with a kind of anodyne, nearly disco groove, and lead singer Paul Janeway’s gymnastic falsetto is always front and center. The UCSB Arts & Lectures show at the Arlington Theater had a big surprise in store as the little known but destined-to-be-big Black Pumas took the stage on cat’s paws and erupted into a hard driving, funky and powerful set to open the show. Lead singer Eric Burton is the real deal, leaping about the stage and into the audience while singing great originals and imaginative covers with one of the most distinctive and powerful voices to emerge in quite a while. Backed by a tight and funky band led by guitarist Adrian Quesada, they have one great hit song in “Black Moon Rising” (much better live than on the record), but their set-closing re-imagining of “Eleanor Rigby” was stunning. For this attendee, the cats from Austin stole the show from the slick stars from Alabama with the big ‘ol light show, delivering a hard-charging and really satisfying (but too short) musical blockbuster. Hard act to follow.
